Gentleman and Trickster
by Ethernaut
Summary: [AU Niou x Yagyuu] Tokyo, in the not too distant future. Macrocorps are the dominant powers, and down on the streets, people like Niou Masaharu and Yagyuu Hiroshi take such work as they can get.
1. Chapter 1

_Right. This is an AU fic. Like, extremely AU. Contains no trace of tennis to date, so if that's a problem then consider yourselves warned.  
What it does contain is Niou with cyberwear, and a certain amount of the rest of Rikkai hanging around.  
It's being written for the Livejournal community 10au. It is scheduled to be accompanied by another fic in the same AU centred around Hyoutei (more specifically, Oshitari and Gakuto) once I'm done with Rikkai.  
Pairing is Niou x Yagyuu, with bits of others, such as Sanada x Yukimura. Kind of. So yes, slash, though not very strongly so. Again, if that bothers you..._

_Edited for line-breaks to try and make it easier to read_.

* * *

**- Part One -**

Niou Masaharu. Twenty-two, probably. So full of wires that he'd make a metal detector light up like a christmas tree, definitely. Feared (with good reason), certainly. Messy white hair, a wicked smile, heavy boots and torn black clothing, goggles pushed up onto his forehead and linked by a length of cable to the gun held easily in one hand. A bit like a cat -- self-assured, apparently at home anywhere. The trickster. A wild card.

Yagyuu Hiroshi. Refined, reserved. One who aims for perfection in everything he does. One who likes order, which makes his reasons for being in this line of work at all something of a mystery. Eyes hidden behind mirrored glasses, mouth set in a straight line. Immaculately dressed and groomed. The gentleman. Possibly more of an unknown than the trickster, if less violently unpredictable in his actions.

The unlikely pair, as some would have it. Plenty of people had wondered aloud at their ability to work together as a team, in response to which Niou would drape himself over Yagyuu and cast a particularly nasty grin at the speaker, and Yagyuu would politely explain, stiffening a little but making no attempt to untangle himself from Niou, that things were not always as they seemed on the surface. Thank you. And that would be that. Most people would leave such a conversation feeling that they'd got off lightly, but not sure why, or what they had avoided. It was hard to say which of the pair could be more unnerving.

-----

"Oi, Hiroshi," the white-haired man called, "all set?"

"Mm."

The trickster rolled his eyes, letting himself drop backwards into a chair before reaching for a pack of cigarettes. If Yagyuu Hiroshi wasn't even answering in full sentences yet, it'd be a while before they were going anywhere. He must be pretty thoroughly tied up in VR. It seemed like one hell of a nuisance, sometimes, to wait around while his companion trawled through cyberspace, leaving his body almost vacant next to his compact deck like a puppet with the strings cut. Niou wasn't good at waiting, wasn't good at far-reaching plans. He was impatient and spontaneous. He was prepared to admit, though, that they fucked up one hell of a lot less if he just let Yagyuu have his planning time. Once they were in, Niou could take care of the unpredictable elements in his own unique way. He was good at reading situations, reading people.

The two of them were opposites in a great many respects, but they complimented each other in terms of ability far more often than most people realised.

A while later, Yagyuu seemed to snap back to life, his body regaining its typical rather stiff posture. He stood, brushing a hand over his clothing to remove imagined dust.

"Yanagi will get the data to me within the next hour. We can get ready and start moving if you like, but it's not a matter of deepest urgency. We can wait here until we've actually got the information; we're not on a terribly tight time frame for this one."

Niou eyed the neat man, something of a calculating glint in his eyes which he was sure Yagyuu would spot. True, he'd wanted to get started, but if they could spare an hour... well, some interesting possibilities were presenting themselves.

-----

The streets of Tokyo were never dark, really. Although it was night, the glow of neon signs and the sickly yellow of streetlights left everything visible but slightly peculiar, colours distorted or washed out. The Trickster lounged against a wall, waiting (once again) for the Gentleman.

The Gentleman in question was standing very upright, staring straight ahead of him, occasionally tapping a few keys on a pad slung from his belt. Most people would just have thought him strange, but (while he _knew_ the Gentleman was strange) the Trickster was aware that he was reading data off a display on the inside of his perfectly mirrored glasses. Most people wouldn't even have noticed the wire, or the small switch on the right-hand part of the frame, behind the Gentleman's ear. The Trickster had noticed, of course, even before the Gentleman had shown him. Noticing things was just something he did.

Yagyuu liked to think of them in these terms when he was being Niou, and was fairly sure Niou thought in similar terms when he was being Yagyuu. The switching of their personalities, or rather their _personas_, their public faces, left him slightly confused at times. It was easier to think of himself as being the Trickster than to think of himself as being Niou, because however deep their game went, there were bits of Niou he could never fully get at. He could act like Niou well enough to fool anyone, but couldn't think entirely like him. Yagyuu was Yagyuu and Niou was Niou (however much it felt like the line between them blurred at times), but the Gentleman and the Trickster could change places.

It amused him that Niou had chosen that night to revive their old game. Still, it could work to their advantage. Maybe.

After all, things were not always as they appeared on the surface.

"Five minutes," the Gentleman murmured, so only the Trickster could hear him, "then the shift changes."

His face was blank, emotion muted if not eradicated, and he stood just right. Niou hadn't forgotten how to be the Gentleman.

-----

The main trick to the switch was simple: neither Yagyuu or Niou were naturally very distinctive in appearance. People could spot Niou coming a mile off, but it was because of the trappings. Hair, expression, the way he moved. Maybe, Niou had theorised one day, when they were considerably younger, if the trappings were placed on another person then... he'd trailed off, giving Yagyuu a look which would become entirely too familiar to the other man over the years. The same would work in reverse, surely, Yagyuu had shot back. When people pictured him, they pictured neatness, and his glasses. Niou had only looked more thoughtful at that comment.

They'd tried it out in a burst of curiosity and enthusiasm, both mostly on Niou's part, and it had worked. Yagyuu had been surprised at that, and surprised also to find that it was almost educational. Niou did things he would never have considered as valid options, and expressed himself freely. Not to mention loudly. Yagyuu had not expected Niou to wish for a repeat; after all, the Trickster only liked games with some novelty to them. It was no fun if people knew what was coming. It seemed, though, like Niou had developed a fascination with trying to be Yagyuu.

They switched a lot for a while after that. It was almost perfect by the end, and it transformed what had been almost more of an uneasy truce between them into something resembling a conventional friendship. Insofar as anything involving Niou could be conventional, at any rate. They understood each other, not completely, but extensively: that was the important thing which had changed. Niou, one step away from a street-rat, clinging to civilised life only because he had a certain effortless intelligence which kept him from getting kicked out; Yagyuu, reduced to attending a shitty school because of his father's sudden and unforeseen fall from grace in the eyes of the macrocorp he'd worked for. Definitely the unlikely pair, at that time.

It'd ended as suddenly as it began, with Yagyuu trying to explain, politely, that his father had found another school for him to attend, and Niou shouting about being abandoned. He'd almost punched Yagyuu, had tried, but Yagyuu had good reflexes. He'd wanted to break down and cry, and suspected Niou had too. They'd both dealt with it in their own way. Yagyuu retreated, Niou exploded.

They'd gone years without seeing each other, after that. Their reunion had been a chance one, in a grimy bar inhabited only by people looking for certain kinds of work, and Niou had almost hit him again. Yagyuu still had good reflexes, better reflexes than ever, in fact, but it'd been a close thing. Niou was wired up by then, stronger and faster than he had been. Crude work, but Niou had never had much in the way of money. It served, he'd said, once he'd calmed down and stopped yelling at Yagyuu about not keeping in touch. Yagyuu had smiled politely, apologised, and bought Niou a drink. The evening had ended with Niou, widely feared gunman, draped across the shoulders of Yagyuu, electronics expert, practically being carried out of the bar and back to Yagyuu's modest but comfortable apartment. Neither of them had found work, but somehow, it didn't seem like such a waste of an evening.

Niou had opened his eyes in the morning to find himself sprawled across a strange bed, being offered coffee by Yagyuu, who had either been awake for a while or had some kind of unnatural ability to appear neat even first thing in the morning. They hadn't really bothered parting ways after that. Yagyuu's apartment was big enough for two. The switch, though, hadn't been taken up again. Yagyuu had watched Niou anyway, memorising things about him as though he might have to become him again. Niou had probably been doing the same thing to Yagyuu; it was a habit, even after years apart.

-----

The switch wasn't as flawless as it had been back when they were kids. Niou had so much metal in him, and some of it was visible -- but careful selection of clothing fixed most of that. Yagyuu had nothing so crude as metal, though his body was far from unaltered. Bioware was more his style, most of the time, but it didn't leave any signs on him, so that wasn't a problem in terms of appearance. It was largely that their abilities were more different now than they had been. The Gentleman found himself wondering how it would work out; the Trickster, naturally, knew it didn't really matter. It would be a good trick either way. Then it was time, and they were working, a two-man team with near perfect synchronisation. Niou as the Gentleman was delighted to note that they almost seemed to work better as a pair like this.

The Gentleman was efficient, as expected. The lock opened easily, the door swung outwards. The Trickster slipped through first, ready for trouble, though they weren't expecting it at this stage, not really. Sure enough, the Gentleman was quickly beckoned inside, and found himself standing next to the Trickster in an empty, dirty passage. They moved through the complex quietly and carefully. The Trickster would look to the Gentleman for directions, and the Gentleman would pause, read something off a screen only he could see, and indicate the best route to take. The Trickster made mental notes as they went, analysed their surroundings, picked out the places trouble was most likely to come from.

It was, the Gentleman thought, going to be a slightly trying night. Things were going smoothly but they hadn't reached the area where there was a real possibility of everything going to hell yet. They would, soon enough. Part of the problem was that so many people were involved. Yanagi was the link between all involved parties, and was taking care of such problems as security cameras and motion sensors from wherever he was hanging out these days, and then apparently Kirihara of all people had been hired to create a... diversion. The Gentleman wondered how Kirihara continued to get work, sometimes, but it seemed there was a special market for people with less in the way of morals than the Trickster and no sense of when to stop. He also wondered just what Kirihara would consider to be a valid diversion, and if it would involve explosives. Whatever he did it would, the Gentleman supposed, probably be effective, if crude. In any case, The Gentleman and the Trickster were the main show. Part of the trick was to make sure no-one actually realised that until the curtains closed.

Yagyuu as the Trickster slipped the goggles down to cover his eyes, though he didn't kick the link to the gun into life, instead using some handy extra functions which Niou had added to check the immediate area over for stuff he hadn't managed to pick out with normal vision. It would be a shame to miss anything stupid, at this stage. Everything seemed ok.

"This seems like a good place to pause," the Gentleman remarked in a low voice, "Yanagi will tell me when Kirihara has got to work."  
"Been set loose, you mean," the Trickster grinned nastily and folded himself down until he was crouching, leaning back against the wall, elbows resting on his legs, head tilted forwards. "Weird little bastard sometimes, isn't he?"

"He's not the most well balanced individual I've ever met. Some people seem to have faith in him, though." The Gentleman didn't bother comment that people had compared the Trickster with Kirihara, from time to time. The Trickster lacked the rather obviously unbalanced aspect of Kirihara's personality which defined him in many people's minds, but both were known for a not inconsiderable cruel streak.

"Huh."

The Gentleman crouched across from the Trickster, though he did not lean against the wall. Niou as the Gentleman had a sudden sense of looking in the mirror, a disorientating moment where he forgot that they were switched, and a little later realised he was searching in the face of Yagyuu as the Trickster for something that was _just_ Yagyuu. He thought there was a subtle difference in the shape of their faces, maybe in the shape of their eyes if he could see Yagyuu's behind the goggles, but that was about it. He hadn't thought this much about the switch since the first time, but that'd been so long ago. It all felt sort of new again, except that their bodies remembered how the game went.

A lot had changed since that first time. It almost hurt (but not quite, because Niou had become quite adept at ignoring things which hurt) to think about how much each of them had lost, though of course they'd gained things too. He wasn't entirely certain it had been worth it.

"Are you feeling unwell, _Yagyuu?_" the Trickster enquired, a taunting edge to his voice. He must have noticed Niou letting the charade slip, though he was pretty sure he'd barely dropped the outer appearance, even when his mind had wandered.

"Certainly not. I was-- ah, wait. Yanagi's on."

_  
Status?_ he sent across the link.

_Looking good_, the response came back, _Kirihara seems to be enjoying himself. You'll probably be able to hear that much when you're in. Good luck._

Relating this to the Trickster, it struck him that Kirihara 'enjoying himself' sounded slightly ominous.

_One more thing_, Yanagi sent, just as he was about to kill the link_, you might want to watch out for Akutsu Jin. Word just in has it he's been hired by the corp, and no-one knows what for, so it wouldn't hurt to watch your step. He might not even be around that facility, but... _But. They knew, and Yanagi definitely knew, that ignoring the possibility of someone like Akutsu showing up would be beyond foolish.

_We'll bear that in mind, _he sent, and closed the link.

"You remember Akutsu, I'm sure," he told the Trickster, his face still carefully blank. "Stay alert."

"He's an idiot," the Trickster replied flatly, "not even that interesting, as idiots go. I pity the corp that hires him. But whatever. I'll keep an eye open."

"Don't underestimate him. It's been a while."

"Whatever," the Trickster repeated, shrugged, "can we get a fucking move on already?"

Niou laughed to himself, though he managed to remain entirely straight faced on the outside. The Trickster might sound irritable, but he was sure Yagyuu was loving every minute of this, in his own weird way. It was good to see that they could still play this game.

"So impatient, Niou," he retorted, inclining his head slightly. "But certainly."

He stood and held out a hand, helping the Trickster to his feet.

"It's time. Let's go."


	2. Chapter 2

_All stuff from previous chapter applies, plus -- added violence this time 'round.  
_

* * *

**- Part Two -**

For a while, a handful of seconds at a time, everything failed to fall apart. They were just where people weren't looking, never quite seen, never quite caught out. Some people would have called it luck. The Trickster called it talent. He read the situation, the Gentleman supplied relevant facts, and they watched one another's backs as they moved onward.

There was definitely something going on, in a distant part of the complex. Gunfire, and a lot of shouting. All the gunfire was distant, but the shouting seemed fairly widespread. It did, indeed, sound like Kirihara was probably enjoying himself. Most of the personnel they saw were in a state of panic, and shouted exchanges about faulty sprinkler systems seemed to indicate that Kirihara had set fire to something, at the very least. Neither the Gentleman or the Trickster could imagine him stopping at just that. Kirihara could be friendly if he decided he liked someone, but there was frequently something bordering on demonic about him. In a gentler time, he would have been imprisoned long ago. Now, people gave him work as a professional troublemaker.

"Turn right here. Third door on the left. It'll be locked, possibly more than once. Might be guarded. Yanagi says he took special care with the surveillance equipment there, though."

The Trickster nodded, and eyed the surroundings. Whoever had decided that it wasn't worth the cost of making sure all the pipes and cables in this place were neatly covered up was a friend to him for the moment, he decided, launching himself awkwardly up the wall to grab hold of a sturdy-looking insulated pipe above him. Swinging himself up into the guts of the facility, he grinned down at the Gentleman, winked. The Gentleman nodded, turned, and strode down the passage, looking for all the world like he knew where he was going and was far too busy to be stopped. With Kirihara's help, people were probably distracted enough that they wouldn't notice anything wrong with the picture; the Gentleman was well dressed enough to look like he belonged, in any case. The Trickster followed above, trusting to the fact that people rarely looked up even when they weren't in a state of panic.

There were two guards on the door. They looked like they were quite happy with their position, presumably because there wasn't any gunfire in that area, which many people seemed to consider a bonus. The Gentleman felt almost sorry for them, just for a second, before the Trickster dropped on one, cracked him hard across the back of the skull, and had pressed his gun to the back of the other's head almost before the man could have registered his presence.

"Quietly," he hissed, "The gun has a silencer, the security cameras are fucked, and I can clear up a little blood,"

The Gentleman decided that this situation was under control, for the time being. All he had to worry about in the immediate future was getting the locks disabled, as quickly as possible. Niou was secretly glad that Yagyuu had such a good kit for this sort of thing, or he might be a bit lost, but as it was the Gentleman made short work of the three locks.

"Is anyone inside?" he heard the Trickster ask the guard, who probably shook his head, because after a moment the Trickster continued. "Good. Then I'm sure you won't mind going first."

Turning his head, he saw that the Trickster had the man in a hold, gun still against his head, and was using him as a kind of shield. He gave the unfortunate man a humourless smile, and stepped aside, gesturing for the Trickster and his victim to go ahead. He grabbed the unconscious man the Trickster had more or less landed on top of, and prepared to haul him inside. It wouldn't do to have him lying around where anyone could just trip over him, after all.

The Trickster kicked the door open and pushed through, alert and edgy. It was lucky for the man being used as his human shield that he'd told the truth, and the room was empty of people; the Trickster simply clubbed him over the head with his gun. He wouldn't have hesitated to shoot him if the man had lied, the Gentleman knew. He closed the door carefully behind him, deposited the unconscious man he was dragging unceremoniously next to the one the Trickster had just knocked out, and looked around. The Trickster had got his moment of fun, now it was time for the Gentleman to do his job. The Trickster was there to watch his back and make sure nothing went wrong while he was distracted. He checked through the instructions once more, for good measure, though he'd memorised them already: it never hurt to be certain.

The room was full of... well, full of technology. There wasn't really any other way to put it. Two walls were covered with digital storage units, probably mostly holding entirely uninteresting corporate records, and shelving units held all sorts of other things which Niou didn't really recognise, but the Gentleman probably should have. There was a diagram of what they were after, which was really just as well. It still took a while to locate it, and the Gentleman was very aware that they could be interrupted at any moment. All it took was someone noticing that the guards were absent; not necessarily a sign that something further was wrong, given the general confusion at the moment, but a reason to at least check, which would mean they noticed the locks had been tampered with. The Trickster was aware of this, too, and moved restlessly by the door, casting impatient looks in the direction of the Gentleman.

The unit was much like the others in the room, but ever so slightly larger, with an unfamiliar logo imprinted on the casing, rather than the corporate logo visible on the rest. The Gentleman reached for his tools, and began to dismantle it, working carefully to disable the alarms built into the case. If this thing was as significant as they'd been led to believe then tripping one would probably bring half the guards in this place straight to them, which wasn't something he particularly wanted to experience. It was painstaking work, but Niou as the Gentleman was fairly sure he could do it. He just had to take it slowly, and trust Yagyuu as the Trickster to handle any outside problems.

"Yagyuu. We might have company, get down," the Trickster's voice sounded a little strained, and as the Gentleman moved behind a rack to continue working he wondered if it wasn't a sign that the real Yagyuu was feeling the pressure of being the one on watch for once. The case was almost opened now, anyway. Yagyuu could probably have done it a lot faster, but he was good enough. As it came open, he let out a long breath. That was the worst of it, thanks to the alarms. Now it was just a matter of detaching the chips they'd been sent for and... fuck, was that shouting outside?

-----

The Trickster tensed and readied his gun, checking the clip and kicking the link with the goggles into life so the targeting aids showed up across his vision. Yagyuu was pretty sure Niou didn't need to use these often, but he was damn glad they were there. There were several people in the corridor, and they all sounded angry, which was fine by him. They could go on being angry at each other for as long as they wanted, especially if it meant they forgot to check the door. He stood to one side, got the gun pointing at around chest height in the centre of the door, and waited to see if they were in shit yet or not.

The first guy through the door went down hard, taking a shot between the eyes as the Trickster managed to pull the gun up, grateful for the targeting system. Yagyuu as the Trickster was pretty glad that he'd seen fit to get his reflexes tuned up, if not in such an unsubtle way as Niou had. The second guy had more of an idea of what was coming and could probably have avoided the shot if he'd been a little faster; the bullet clipped the side of his head, and he went down anyway. Niou would have hit him squarely, but it didn't matter too much.

After that, however, it was pretty much all downhill.

"Yagyuu. Hurry the fuck up!" the Trickster gritted his teeth, wincing. His right arm hurt, where a bullet had grazed it. He didn't think it was too badly damaged, but he sure as hell felt stupid for not being more careful. They'd managed to attract the attention of at least a small part of the staff now, and holding them off wasn't going to work for much longer. He didn't even want to think about how they were going to get out; as it was, he was under cover, firing off shots towards the doorway almost more to put people off the idea of entering than specifically to hit anyone. The blood running down his arm was making the grip of the gun slippery. Damn.

Someone slammed into him, knocking him sideways into a wall, and the gun flew out of his grip. Shit. Someone with wired reflexes or worse, probably. He'd barely seen that coming. There was a hand at his throat, choking his breath away, so he went limp. Hopefully that'd convince them to let go, for now. He was dropped, and slid down the wall, letting himself land like a rag doll. He didn't even gasp when his damaged arm jarred against the floor.

"Well look at this," an unfamiliar voice drawled, "it's the trickster and the gentleman. Never thought I'd see the trickster go down so easy, though. How disappointing."

Yagyuu as the Trickster forced himself to remain still, hoping they wouldn't notice if he opened his eyes just a fraction. Who the hell was this? It wasn't Akutsu, that was for sure.

He took in as much of the room as he could without moving, from half-closed eyes. The view this gave him was mostly of people's legs, but he could make out Niou as the Gentleman, crouched a little way away, face still carefully blank. He could imagine the flash of anger in those eyes, though, behind the glasses. He thought he saw Niou palm something, but he wasn't sure, and then the Gentleman was surrounded. He still had no idea who their attackers were, but he was fairly sure at least one of them -- whoever had managed to throw him against the wall -- wasn't standard corp security.

-----

The Gentleman looked up at the people surrounding him, and carefully flicked the box he'd just finished putting the components in up his sleeve, out of sight. Not something Yagyuu would have done, but hopefully no-one would notice where the small box had gone. He couldn't make out exactly what had happened to the Trickster, but he didn't think he was as far gone as the newcomers seemed to believe him to be. He couldn't deny he'd felt a little shock of fear when he saw the Trickster collapse, but surely Yagyuu was tougher than that.

"The gentleman. Yagyuu Hiroshi. What an honour."

He looked up, and took in the face of the man standing over him.

_We may be fucked,_ he sent quickly to Yanagi, _just so you know._ He didn't really care, any more, if it didn't sound like Yagyuu sending the messages. His mouth curled again into that little humourless smile.

"Oshitari Yuushi," his gaze flicked around the other faces, "Mukahi Gakuto. Shishido Ryou too? So good of you all to welcome us like this."

Somehow, he hated it more when he was up against other people who were on some level or other _like him_ (though he hesitated to compare himself too strongly with, say, Mukahi). Faceless corp security was one thing, but there was always a weird feeling in fighting against people he might have been working alongside if they'd run into a different guy in the bar the night before. He _had_ worked with Oshitari a few times, before he'd run into Yagyuu again. He thought it was Shishido who'd managed to get hold of Yagyuu just now; he was definitely fast. Oshitari was pretty dangerous hand-to-hand unless you could surprise him enough, and Gakuto was something of an unknown to him, beyond that he was rarely hired without Oshitari, these days.

Whatever Mukahi might be good at, he currently had a gun pointed at the Gentleman's head, which was enough of a reason to be wary of him. Niou quite liked his head as it was.

Oshitari's suddenly blank expression indicated that he was probably engaged in conversation over some form of link. Niou supposed he was being told what exactly to do with them, and doubted it would be anything pleasant. However, while he was distracted...

It was a gamble, sure, but he didn't currently have a lot to lose. One hand snaked out, his already enhanced speed given an extra edge by raw survival instinct, and struck a pressure-point on Mukahi's arm. He hit it just right, sending the gun clattering to the floor. The small redhead gaped, but Niou didn't have time to savour the moment; he gave it a few more seconds before the shock of Yagyuu Hiroshi performing pressure-point strikes wore off and then he'd be right back in the shit. He needed to make the most of those moments the switch had granted him. First things first: Oshitari. One foot kicked up, connecting hard with the man's jaw; thank goodness for the distraction that was mental linking. Shishido was surprisingly on the ball, though, and as Niou swung a fist at him he ducked aside and caught the punch with one hand. He wasn't about to let go to give his attacker another chance, but fortunately Niou wasn't out of tricks yet. He flashed Shishido a grin which was purely his own, in no way Yagyuu, and flexed his wrist. Shishido yelped, and flinched backwards, clutching at his hand. Niou noted blood oozing between the man's fingers and treated him to an even wider grin as he retracted his wrist-blade. No-one messed with Niou and Yagyuu without regretting it.

He took stock of the situation. Mukahi was scrambling for his gun, which had skidded away under one of the shelves. Oshitari was back from whatever conversation which Niou had so rudely interrupted, but looked more than a little stunned from the kick. Shishido was using an impressive array of colourful language, but it'd be a few moments before he was with it enough to cause trouble. Seemed like this had been a good night to resurrect the switch after all. He wondered if they'd even figured out what had happened yet. Oshitari would probably figure it out as soon as he had a moment to think -- the guy had more brains than he could possibly need -- but Shishido just looked confused as hell. And angry, but that was ok; Niou was angry too, in a cold sort of way. They'd _shot_ Yagyuu, and they'd made Niou experience a moment of fear. He wasn't going to forgive either of those points easily, however much he was aware that they were just doing their job, as he and Yagyuu were doing theirs. What else? He didn't have a gun, but he had some nice implants, one of which Shishido had just discovered. Yagyuu was-- where was Yagyuu? He looked at the space where his partner had been sprawled, looked back up... to see Yagyuu, conscious and upright if a little pale, pressing a gun against Oshitari's back. He hadn't stopped his bleeding properly yet, Niou noted, so they'd better get this over quickly before the idiot collapsed again. It was weird to look at him like this, because his expression was all Yagyuu, full of determination and drive, but everything else was still Niou.

It didn't take much to end it, after that. The trio were shocked enough and felt threatened enough that they backed down without too much persuasion, for at least long enough that Niou could grab Yagyuu's wrist and practically throw him out of the room, before diving after him and pulling the door shut, leaving their opponents alive but unable to reach them. It bought time, at least. He was more than half expecting to find himself facing a kind of impromptu firing squad as soon as they were in the passage; he'd almost resigned himself to dying, earlier, and the feeling that everything might just be ok was a distant and weird one which some part of his brain was saying must be false. There was no-one, though, and it struck Niou as almost suspicious. Why wasn't there more resistance? Then again, maybe he was just being a paranoid bastard. There had been plenty of people trying to kill the pair of them only minutes ago, after all.

He checked the link with Yanagi, and noted a large number of increasingly irritated messages demanding more information.

_Ah, never mind_, he sent, _it wasn't so bad after all._

Yanagi wasnot going to be impressed.

-----

"Niou?" Yagyuu groaned, staggering against the other man.

"Shut up. You're not bleeding too much any more, and no-one is trying to shoot us. Enjoy it while it lasts, you idiot," Niou scowled at him, without any real malice, and tightened his grip around Yagyuu, holding him up.

"We didn't even succeed, did we?" Yagyuu muttered, "Though I suppose I should--" he winced as Niou accidentally knocked his arm, "--just be glad it didn't get any worse."

"Didn't succeed?" Niou fished around in his sleeve and pulled out a small box, which he waved in front of Yagyuu, "My dear Hiroshi, you underestimate me. We've got our employer's precious piece of technology right here."


	3. Chapter 3

**- Part Three -**

Yagyuu's arm was encased in a support to stop him damaging it further, and while he was naturally too outwardly polite to complain, Niou could practically feel his irritation. They were themselves again, hair and clothes back to normal, and any minute now Yanagi was going to want to know what the hell they thought they were playing at. He'd accepted that they needed to go and get Yagyuu patched up first, but that had only delayed explanations for a little while. This, Niou thought, was just _great_. Yanagi was annoyed at him for the messages he'd sent, Yagyuu seemed to be on the verge of snapping at him for reasons unspecified, though it was probably projected irritation at his own perceived mistakes. Yagyuu could be like that. And somewhere, three of Hyoutei's finest were going to be pretty damn pissed, too. The only real redeeming feature of the entire affair was sitting in the little box, which he'd been looking after extremely carefully ever since they'd made it out of the complex.

Somehow, the fact that Yagyuu had control of their link with Yanagi again was making him feel faintly paranoid, but it was possibly better than being on the receiving end of Yanagi's somewhat pointed messages. Once the man had realised he was talking to Niou rather than Yagyuu, things had suddenly become rather uncomfortable. Niou had a faint suspicion that he had noticed from the beginning, but would have been prepared to let it slide, had they not fucked up. Yanagi always noticed things you'd rather slip past him. He wondered if the hacker knew about the history of their switch. It wouldn't entirely surprise him.

-----

"Yanagi wants to actually meet with us," Yagyuu informed Niou coldly, resettling his glasses on his nose, "so I suggest you clean yourself up a bit."

His arm was a dull ache which he couldn't quite push from his mind, reminding him of both his current physical weaknesses and his earlier mistakes. Maybe he'd become too used to surpassing Niou, when they were younger; how had it happened that Niou seemed able to perform Yagyuu's role, while Yagyuu failed miserably in Niou's? There was, he had to admit, the obvious factor of cyberware. Yagyuu's mind was unnaturally fast in some respects, and his memory was truly excellent, but his body wasn't quite as tuned up as Niou's. That much he could account for and, if not quite forgive, at least explain. It felt, though, like the difference between them went further than that. He wasn't even sure who had messed up in the end, or if he'd done the right thing, or what would have happened if he'd moved before Niou had. Maybe it would have worked out, or maybe Niou would have been shot; he'd been too afraid of what might happen to Niou to even try. Yes, he'd moved after Niou's first attack, but he'd had to wait to follow his lead. It left a bitter taste in his mouth. Was he a coward? He'd never thought so before, but now the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. He was feeling angry, and there was no-one to take that anger out on except Niou, who he admitted on some level or other probably didn't deserve it. Yagyuu did the only thing he knew how to do: he retreated, putting up the barriers, blanking his partner. Maybe he really _was_ a coward.

Yanagi was waiting for them at the bar, looking smart, relaxed, and not at all angry. Not that appearances meant anything, here. He spoke to them, in a private room, about the importance of maintaining good contact with the rest of the team. Yagyuu felt like an observer; it was Niou who was on the end of this very calm and yet slightly threatening lecture. Niou, who was practically squirming in his seat. It gave him almost a flash of satisfaction to know he wasn't the only one who was perceived as having messed up, though he felt guilty for that thought almost immediately.

Finally, it seemed like Yanagi had made Niou squirm enough (_precisely_ the right amount, knowing the man), and the talk became more general. Niou got the job of delivering the item they'd retrieved, with Kirihara for backup (and if Yagyuu felt further bitterness at that, he pushed it aside quickly; logically, he wasn't in a good state to be making sure nothing went wrong, with only one fully functional arm). Kirihara, they were told, had been the one to run into Akutsu. It sounded like the meeting had been quite unpleasant for all parties involved, but if Kirihara was fit enough to accompany Niou, then it couldn't have been too catastrophic, surely.

The three of them finished talking business, leaving everything else carefully on the sidelines. Somethings, really, were just hard to talk about. But as they went to depart, Niou paused in the doorway, and asked the question, his voice almost a whisper.

"Yukimura?"

Yanagi Renji shook his head.

"Not yet. Maybe not ever. We just don't know."

Yagyuu withdrew a little further.

-----

It had only been a matter of time before the whole thing exploded. Niou, as usual, was the one to trigger it. It was always like this now, when things went wrong between them. Yagyuu withdrew, and Niou found he had to resort to more and more extreme measures to get any kind of response. He knew Yagyuu was capable of feeling emotion, far more capable than Niou himself maybe, and it pissed him off more than he could say to watch problems getting buried deeper and deeper whenever something began to upset the polite man. Niou might block out pain, but he knew Yagyuu just stopped it from showing on his face. Underneath, all he was doing was caging himself in with his emotions, until everything was well and truly out of control inside his head. It seemed so different to the way it had been before, Niou thought, almost a reversal of roles. Niou had been the one with an explosive temper, once, but things changed. Maybe they'd switched roles in this area at some point, without even realising. Maybe the line between them was more blurred than he'd thought, even now. In any case, he was damned if he was going to let Yagyuu drown himself inside his own head.

Yagyuu's anger, if one could succeed in getting him to express it, was impressive. Niou worked at it. Well-placed comments, carefully designed actions, until finally...

"Niou, what the fuck do you think you're playing at?"

Good, he wasn't being polite. Niou must've really got him going. He felt Yagyuu's hand grab his shirt, didn't bother to dodge. It wasn't like Yagyuu could hold him like this and punch him at the same time right now anyway. The man only had one good arm.

"Provoking you. What does it look like?"

"Why?" He felt his back slam against the wall as Yagyuu pushed him away.

What was he meant to say? I want you to tell me what's wrong, because otherwise it's just going to sit between us, and you're so fucking reluctant to talk unless I get you really mad. Or: oh, I just felt like it. Maybe I want some kind of emotional response from you, even if it's anger. Perhaps I don't see why I should be mature if you're not going to be.

He settled for saying nothing. Yagyuu looked about ready to maim him, or maybe break down, or both; the floodgates were wide open already, without further effort on Niou's part.

-----

It sort of felt better, afterwards, when he could think clearly again. He knew that Niou did this on purpose, and that he did it for a reason, but somehow he lost sight of that every time something of the kind actually happened. He felt more than a little ashamed about the whole thing -- his lack of self control in the face of Niou's deliberate provocation, how badly he took losing at anything, falling short of perfection. At least he felt calmer now; perhaps, really, Niou was right. He did need to just let everything out from time to time. It wasn't something he found easy to do, though. He was too used to guarding what he said all the time. At some point, it had reached the stage where he had to be forced into opening up.

Niou knew that, of course. He must know that; he was far too familiar with Yagyuu to overlook such a basic aspect of who he was. They would never be people who could express their feelings to one another with absolute freedom. That, he supposed, was probably a part of why the switch had come about in the fist place, all those years ago. It was an attempt to get under the skin of another person, an attempt to understand something which seemed utterly alien. The depth of similarity between them revealed by their experiment was surprising, at the time, and in the aftermath of switching, in the aftermath of their fight, Yagyuu was surprised by it all over again.

The apartment was quiet now, though he had yet to decide if that was a blessing or a curse. Niou was gone, to make his delivery with Kirihara, leaving Yagyuu space to think. He wasn't sure if he wanted space to think. While he definitely had a lot of things he should be thinking about, sometimes what he thought he craved was simplicity. Not thinking about things too deeply made life that little bit easier, that little bit more straightforward. When possible he avoided analysing certain of his feelings altogether, for more or less this reason. He supposed this was how he'd been caught so completely by surprise when, just before he left that evening, once Yagyuu had run out of anger, Niou Masaharu had leant in towards him and kissed him. It had been a rough kiss, forceful and inelegant, but it had made his breath catch, and he'd responded almost before he knew what he was doing. Simplicity was suddenly a long way off, and he had a feeling it was going to be a while before it returned, if it ever did. Wasn't that always the way, though, with Niou?

Tonight, Yagyuu decided, he really didn't know anything for sure. Nothing was going as he expected it to, no-one was acting in ways he anticipated, and maybe he'd been wrong all along about what he wanted. It wasn't the first time Niou had kissed him, but it was the first time since they were young. He'd almost managed to forget the feeling of it, in the years they'd been apart. Nothing with Niou was straightforward, nothing was ordinary, and maybe he'd liked it that way. Maybe he'd just forgotten that, too. Maybe he'd managed to keep himself just detached enough, ever since Niou re-entered his life, to stop himself remembering.

He wondered what was going to happen now, and realised that he couldn't even begin to imagine.

At some point, he must have drifted into sleep, because the next thing he knew, Niou was shaking him awake. Kirihara was standing in the background, in constant restless motion. Yagyuu only needed to note the strained edge to Niou's voice and the look in his eyes to know that something was very, very wrong.

-----

Niou was in a good mood as he headed out to meet Kirihara. Things with Yagyuu had gone more or less as he'd anticipated, and it felt like they'd cleared the air a lot. Yagyuu had stopped being angry at him; now all he could do was hope that the other man would come to the correct conclusions about Niou's parting action. It'd been fun to kiss Hiroshi, and possibly had been long overdue, but the man had to be handled correctly. Niou didn't want to screw this up; he'd already done that once. If he and Kirihara could just sort out the hand-over quickly, he could get back to the apartment. Though leaving Hiroshi hanging was somewhat entertaining. He hadn't even given him a chance to say anything before he'd waltzed out of their home, restraining himself from laughing.

Kirihara was at their meeting point before him, looking a bit scratched up but more or less intact, scruffy as ever. He nodded to Niou, who treated him to a dazzling grin.

"Kirihara. Heard you'd been hanging out with Akutsu. How's the bastard doing?"

The younger man rolled his eyes and shrugged, hands digging deeper into the pockets of his patched jeans. He didn't seem to think the question deserved a response, though Niou caught a hint of a smile, quickly smothered. The pair fell in step, wandering along easily as though they were going nowhere in particular, exchanging insults as others might exchange small talk. Niou quite liked Kirihara, really, when he wasn't in a situation which required or could conceivably require demolition work. He thought Kirihara quite liked him, too. They showed it in their own little way.

The hand-over was scheduled to take place in a fairly remote location, which didn't strike Niou as too promising. It didn't necessarily mean anything, but there was a slightly smaller chance of getting screwed over if you were doing your deals in a bar. Owners of such places tended to frown upon people getting blood on the soft furnishings; a little piece of insurance against some of the bastards out there, though not a guarantee. Still. Maybe their man just wanted a greater level of discretion, a lesser probability of running into someone he knew; could be anything. If Yanagi had figured out the identity and loyalties of the person they were working for, he hadn't seen fit to share. All they could do was get there, wait, and hope.

They arrived early and made a few passes around the outside of the building, checking for anything obviously wrong. It all checked out, and the two of them settled down a few blocks away to wait for the appropriate time. It didn't do to show up too early; it indicated an obvious lack of trust. Of course people checked out the place first, just like you'd try to check out your employer for anything interesting or dangerous, but it wasn't polite to do so openly. Niou wouldn't normally care about politeness -- that was Yagyuu's department -- but it was a little different in this situation. It wasn't done, even by Niou Masaharu, and apparently not even by Kirihara. Some things would just be asking for trouble.

When it was a little past time, they went down to the building, walking inside without apparent hesitation, though Kirihara would have been performing the same instant check of the area as Niou was. It was another one of those things you just did.

There was no-one inside. They were a little late, and the place was empty. By this time, Niou was feeling distinctly uneasy; you got a kind of sense, after a while, of when something wasn't going the way it should, and this was it. Kirihara was walking around, almost silently, checking out the extremes of the building as though expecting to be jumped on at any moment. It didn't seem like paranoia to Niou, at that moment. Any moment now, something bad was going to happen. He was really glad he had his implants; they couldn't be taken off him. Well, a part of him added, they _could_; but if it got to that stage he'd have more pressing concerns.

Kirihara let out a hiss of breath, and stooped to examine something.

"What've you found, kid?" Niou asked, tensing a little.

"Fucking... bastards. Stupid, incompetent bastards," Kirihara gave a little laugh, as devoid of humour as Niou's own often was. "Explosives. Did they think we wouldn't _notice?_ You might want to shift it about now," he added, almost an afterthought.

"How long?" Niou was already moving.

"Don't know," Kirihara snapped. "Look, even they weren't stupid enough to put a damn screen with a neat little countdown on it, just go!"

They were outside by the time the place blew, dashing around a corner when the world became, briefly, bright and loud and full of the kind of excitement Niou could really do with less of.

"I bet I get blamed for that one, too," the explosives expert grumbled. "Something blows up, it must have been Kirihara. Because no-one else in this city would do such a thing."

"You're asking for it, boy," Niou swatted him playfully across the back of the head, "besides, it usually _is_ you."

His mind was in overdrive, racing through scenario after scenario. He hadn't seen that coming. Snipers or something, possibly. His best guess had been a bunch of toughs to take them out through sheer weight of numbers; it wouldn't have been street samurai or anyone so sophisticated as that. Be it freelance individuals like themselves or hiring through a makeshift organisation like Hyoutei, even people of their kind thought some things were dirty. You didn't do it because it was too low a trick, and you wanted to think that no-one would do it to you. He hadn't factored in something like the trick which had actually been pulled because, had it worked, the tech they were carrying would almost certainly have been destroyed, and everything that had occurred to him was based on the assumption that their employer wanted the goods without the hassle of actually conducting business with them. Niou could see several steps ahead in any game; dozens of steps, sometimes. The problem here was that the game being played wasn't the one he'd thought it was. It wasn't a game he knew, and he wasn't too sure of the rules. He wasn't even sure if the explosives had been a serious attempt to kill them, or if whoever had set it up had believed that they would figure it out and escape; either way, the purpose of the exercise was unclear to him. Were there people waiting for them outside in case they escaped? Examining their surroundings didn't reveal anyone nearby, but that didn't mean a thing. Anyone who was going to be a serious threat to them wasn't going to be easy to spot unless they wanted to be. It was safe to assume that they were, at the least, being watched. Someone, somewhere, would want to know how things had gone.

"We're going to leave now," Niou muttered, "people might shoot at us or something. I don't have a fucking clue any more."

No-one shot at them, and that almost made Niou more nervous. It seemed to further indicate that this was in no way a simple situation they'd managed to get themselves into. Had been forced into, more accurately. They took a winding route away from the area, taking buses, walking, using trains. Anything to try and throw the people who might or might not be observing them, although it was impossible to tell if it worked. When Niou figured they'd achieved all they were going to, he began to steer them back towards the apartment he shared with Yagyuu. They needed to talk to Yanagi, urgently, and should probably find somewhere to stay which wasn't their permanent home, at least until they figured out what was going on. There was a sense that everything was about to fall apart, and spectacularly; if only he knew why. What had they done to deserve this? His mind could supply a few answers to that in terms of general karma, had he believed in such things, but nothing specific.

Yagyuu was asleep when they arrived, sprawled a little awkwardly on the sofa, his glasses clutched in one hand. He looked softer like that, as always; it was probably one of the few times when he was actually relaxed, Niou reflected. It seemed a shame to disturb him, but they didn't have time to wait for him to wake up, really. A little reluctantly, Niou leant in to shake him lightly by the shoulder of his good arm.

"Hiroshi? Hey, wake up," he sighed, "come on."

Yagyuu's eyes drifted open, focused on his face, drifted to note Kirihara's presence with well-concealed surprise for someone who still looked half asleep, returned to Niou. He frowned, slipping his glasses on before attempting to sit up.

"What happened?"

-----

"We could be totally screwed, really," Niou finished. He felt tired. Everything was beginning to sink in properly now, as he explained to Yagyuu. Someone had actually tried to kill them. It wasn't like being shot at; that happened in an instant, a spontaneous reaction to a situation. This had been planned out, and realising that made Niou feel cold. Without Kirihara, he might not even have noticed. It wasn't the sort of thing he'd been looking for. Yagyuu was looking at him with a kind of horror, though the signs were only there for those who knew him well; he'd probably realised just what Niou was thinking. Maybe it was only thanks to the fact that the explosives expert had replaced Yagyuu at short notice that no-one had died.

"I'd better contact Yanagi," Yagyuu said, at last.  
"I already did," Kirihara replied, unusually quietly, "he sounded kind of scary. He's... looking into the whole thing now."

There was something passing between the three of them that couldn't quite be put into words. Niou had come closest, really; they could be totally screwed. They could be caught up in something they were powerless to prevent. Kirihara might have said it almost felt like they'd been damned, were waiting to see when someone would show up to claim them; but the older two might have laughed at dramatic little Kirihara.

Niou would have observed that in some ways, they'd been damned for a long time; he'd have said it with a grin, dismissive, but would have meant it. That was almost what it meant to be in their line of work, however much most of them worked to ignore the fact that they were frequently living on a combination of luck, skill, and borrowed time.

No-one said anything. There wasn't any point, really. Kirihara waited uneasily as Niou and Yagyuu gathered the things they considered important, and then they left, walking out into a cold night. If this was the way things were going, they could at least meet the problem head-on, without hesitation. It'd always been the way they'd handled things, when they had been the group known as Rikkaidai.


	4. Chapter 4

_A shorter part than the others, and much more generally Rikkai-centric. Sanada x Yukimura, and others if you squint. I love the Troika so, and it was quite an effort to keep them from taking over; they have a definite Story, but this fic isn't really the place for me to go into full detail with it. Maybe yet another companion fic at some point in the future. I begin to suspect that even if I finish this storyline this AU will never lie down and die. Argh.

* * *

_**- Part Four -**

The three of them, on their way to see Yanagi. Niou could almost imagine nothing had changed, could almost believe that when they arrived Yukimura would be there too, quiet and smiling, with Sanada beside him. Niou would make inappropriate jokes or pull some foolish trick, and Sanada would stare at him, but Yukimura would laugh and touch the stern man's arm gently, and Sanada would have to fight to suppress a smile of his own, though of course he would manage. Yanagi would act like he wasn't watching the two of them interact, keep working like nothing was happening, but he would be content.

But Yukimura wouldn't be there, and it wouldn't be like that. It hadn't been for some time, now. Things changed. He'd learnt that, they all had, and painfully; but back then they'd believed that maybe things could last. Niou barely thought about it, could pretend it didn't matter, could will the memories to leave him alone and avoid reliving the hurt, most of the time. Every time he saw Yanagi, though, he had to ask the question. Almost the same words every time; a variation on the same answer in response. Over and over again. He knew Yagyuu wanted to ask but wouldn't; so he asked for both of them.

They'd come together in a way which could seem like an accident, but which probably hadn't been. They had been younger, new to the game, and all more or less alone; Niou and Yagyuu had found each other again by that stage, just, but everyone else drifted in one at a time, until the group was a definite entity which they would all say they belonged to, not without a trace of pride. Of course, it had been Yukimura who started it, in a way which seemed kind and thoughtful and almost certainly hid some other motive, if only anyone could work out what it was; it was Yukimura's involvement, certainly, which led Niou to believe that none of it had been accidental. Very little Yukimura did was accidental. Beautiful, distant Yukimura, who drew everyone in towards him, though they could never quite reach far enough to touch him -- only Sanada had managed that. Yukimura, who shone brighter than they ever could, made everything seem to matter more.

They needed to watch out for one another, he had said. If they could watch out for each other and push one another onward and they would be the strongest there were, the very best. They had been in their late teens, and some of them had been idealistic, and believed it; the rest had found themselves drawn along with it almost despite themselves. Because of Yukimura. Whatever their differences, he was the link between them.

To the surprise of some, it had worked. Rikkaidai had been a strong group, small but firmly united, more trusting of one another than Hyoutei, and highly skilled. Yukimura was their public face, while Sanada took care of mundane, practical things. Yukimura had not asked him to, but no-one could imagine their almost ethereal leader performing such tasks himself. Yanagi, in the background, had built up contacts until eventually all he had to do much of the time was wait, and information he wanted would come to him. Everyone else -- Niou and Yagyuu, Marui and Jackal, and strange little Kirihara -- had been agents of those three, really. Mostly, though, they had been Yukimura's.

They had smiled more, then. Yukimura smiled like the world was his, and Sanada smiled at Yukimura, when he thought no-one was watching. Yanagi smiled absently, his mind somewhere else. Yagyuu barely smiled even then, but if you could read the slight curve of his lips there was a world of meaning there, and Niou had enjoyed watching it, covertly, as Sanada watched Yukimura. Yagyuu never returned the favour as Yukimura did, though, that he was aware of; he'd chosen to assume that it would simply take time, and that if they could ever come to that sort of understanding it would be very different to what Yukimura and Sanada shared.

That had been the lightest point in Niou's life for years, after the loss of Yagyuu when he was fourteen (forever, as he supposed at the time), after he finally let go and allowed himself to slip far enough to get thrown out of school, after his father made it clear that he wanted nothing more to do with him. After he'd begun to scrape a living for himself on the streets. With Rikkaidai, there was a support network, there was friendship, and a sense of belonging. He spent most of his time in Yagyuu's presence, periodically amazed that he'd been allowed what looked like a second chance to make things work with the man, even if it might eventually become obvious that they would only be friends. He should have known, really, that it was too good to last.

When Niou was twenty, about to turn twenty-one and just beginning to feel something like genuine happiness, genuine confidence, Yukimura had vanished. One day, he simply wasn't there. No explanation, no trace. He might as well not have existed any more, and Rikkaidai, deprived of his light, crumbled. It wasn't immediate, but as time passed, it became obvious that they couldn't last much longer as a solid unit. They were good, but not the way they had been. Sanada was distracted, in despair, entirely lost without the man he had come to care for so deeply; Yanagi spent all his time hunting frantically, pulling in favours, using any means he could to find news of their leader. Nothing had worked. A year on, and Niou knew that Yanagi still tried, every day. They had almost no hope left, any of them, but Yanagi couldn't bring himself to give up, and Niou didn't blame him. He suspected it was as much for Sanada's sake as anything else. In any case, until or unless Yukimura returned, Rikkaidai was a thing of the past. They still worked together, from time to time, but they weren't a unit any more. Niou didn't even know what had become of Marui or Jackal, and knew of Sanada's fortunes only through Yanagi, who rarely said more than the minimum, a hint of sadness in his voice. "Maybe never," he had told them earlier. It must have killed him a little more inside to even voice that truth.

Yanagi, Niou, Yagyuu, Kirihara. That was what was left, really. They didn't smile so much, and when they did it wasn't the same. Yanagi smiled carefully, deliberately, without emotion. Kirihara's smile carried a dangerous edge, a hint of something deeply unpleasant at work under the surface, usually suppressed -- it had been far better hidden, once, but that had been Yukimura's work too. Niou had needed to relearn how to read Yagyuu's near-invisible smiles, which had vanished altogether for a time. His own smile was usually wild, a little savage, and had nothing to do with anything he might be feeling. He couldn't even begin to imagine Sanada smiling now.

It didn't help matters that everyone they dealt with knew what had happened, too, and treated them with something like pity, or something like scorn. It stung, either way. They were broken as a group, and nothing was as good as it had been, but individually they could still stand, and they could still fight. All they wanted, realistically, was to be able to carry on with their lives, and pretend (though this would always inspire a deep sense of guilt, as though they were betraying Yukimura even after everything) that nothing was wrong.

And now, the three of them were going to meet with Yanagi, who would be waiting for them alone. When Niou stole a glance at Yagyuu as they were walking and caught Yagyuu stealing a glance back, it gave him a quick flare of elation; but underneath it was a kind of confused sadness, forcing its way to the surface after too long hidden away. Somehow, the little moment of light only reminded him of how much everyone he knew had lost.


	5. Chapter 5

**- Part Five -**

"I've got nothing," Yanagi admitted once he'd ushered them inside. Niou couldn't really tell from his face, because this was Yanagi after all, but there was an undertone of anger in his voice; he was sure the man was furious. Well, Kirihara had said he sounded scary, and their little demon would know better than the rest of them what Yanagi's moods were like. Renji seemed to be the closest thing there was to a restraining force on Kirihara, in Yukimura's absence.

Yagyuu had only nodded, apparently expecting Yanagi's words.

"If you haven't eaten, you'll want to," Yanagi added, in a jump which made Niou blink. Yanagi tilted his head in the general direction of the white-haired man, seeming faintly amused.

"Well, we're going to be busy for a while, Niou. We have a lot of work to do."

As they ate, seated around a table in the spotless kitchen which was apparently Yanagi's, Niou found himself having to fight down laughter, over and over again. This was such a ludicrously _normal_ thing to be doing, all things considered, that something about it seemed to go through normality and into the surreal. Four young men, eating a meal together, with such conversation as was going on entirely about mundane things. He kept on fighting the laughter, if only because he knew he wouldn't be able to stop. Something like hysteria was hovering on the edges of his mind, waiting for a chance, and if he _had_ to give in to it, he was damn well going to wait until later, at least.

He distracted himself by allowing his fingers to brush against Yagyuu's leg under the table, not too often or too forcefully, but enough to draw a look from Hiroshi which seemed like cold disapproval. If Niou couldn't read Hiroshi's face well enough to catch the telltale signs of something between confusion and desire, he might have felt almost discouraged.

Afterwards, they spent a while setting up Yagyuu's unit again, unpacking it and checking it over. Yanagi and Yagyuu seemed to slip onto the same wavelength at moments such as this (although it had been so much more pronounced, in the time before), and Niou could only watch blankly. A simple link he could cope with, but VR units weren't something he'd ever really tried to comprehend. He would have been able to, had be wanted, because whatever Niou Masaharu might be he was certainly not stupid -- but he lacked the inclination. Yagyuu had more than enough skill and reputation in that area for both of them, in any case, and Yanagi had even more.

Kirihara, barely more knowledgeable than Niou, drifted uneasily around the flat. Niou noted with a certain amusement that, although the circumstances might be making Kirihara uneasy, he seemed entirely at home here. He wondered briefly if Kirihara's relationship with Yanagi didn't go a bit deeper than he'd thought, these days; it would be good if it did, in some respects. Maybe it would help the isolation both of them must have been feeling for the past year. It did raise a few interesting questions, though.

-----

Yagyuu allowed himself to relax a little. Technology was uncomplicated, really, or at least predictable; and when he worked with it he could create a sort of haven for himself, temporarily. The routine inspection of his unit was a familiar enough ritual to be largely automatic, allowing his mind to drift, thinking about everything and nothing.

It occurred to him that he was going to have to find the time for a substantial conversation with Niou, sooner or later. It was true that they'd both matured to some degree, but he couldn't quite grasp what the trickster's intentions were. He hadn't been able to understand last time, either, if it came to that; but he'd panicked, then. It felt like it had been a very long time ago, and he realised with something that was almost shock that it _had_ been long ago. How many years? Eight? They had been so young.

He barely noticed that he'd finished checking the unit, and had been sitting staring at it for a few minutes before Yanagi broke into his private little world.

"Yagyuu, are you ready? I have some software you can use, it's more up-to-date than yours."

From anyone else, those words would have been insulting; but Yanagi was offering no slight, only speaking the truth, in a matter-of-fact way. Yagyuu had not been doing well financially recently, while Yanagi had been faring somewhat better; it was only logical that he'd have been able to keep his programs up to date when Yagyuu's were beginning to show age a little. He shot the calm-looking man a grateful look and nodded, allowing himself a small smile.

It took a little longer to load all the software into his deck, and then he checked it all over again, because he was Yagyuu, and being thorough was just something he did. Everything was working smoothly, leaving him with a little feeling of quiet satisfaction. Perfect. Far too few things had gone this smoothly, of late.

"The first thing," Yanagi explained, "is to see if the corp paid anyone for jobs lately other than us, and then to check who's been paid by their rival. There'll be a data-trail, even if it's not much to work on, if either of those two is responsible for this mess. We'll go from there. The main problem will be if it's a third party, at which point we'll need to investigate who _else _could stand to gain. It wouldn't hurt to do that anyway, really."

Yagyuu nodded again, and set about his work. The first bits could be done through the data-screen, without needing full immersion in VR, but that would only take him so far. They were looking for transactions which would be convoluted, obscured by layer upon layer of careful misdirection. They were skilled at getting through such things, though, there was no question of that; it was just down to time.

It didn't take long to get through those first layers: into cyberspace, through a little security flaw onto the general corp network. After that, they'd need the extra focus that entering full VR would provide.

"We're ready to move into VR. Do you want to join us?" he asked Niou, aware of how bored his companion was likely to become if left unattended, "You can ride passive on my connection, if you'd like to."

Niou seemed to consider for a while, before shrugging and shaking his head in dismissal.

"I wouldn't want Kirihara getting lonely," he grinned widely, giving Kirihara an almost predatory look. Yagyuu felt briefly sorry for the younger man.

"Well, as you please; I'll leave the settings so you can join the connection any time you like."

He turned away, settling himself comfortably in his chair facing the unit before reaching for the switch on the side of his glasses...

... and VR unfolded around him, endless space waiting for something to fill it.

-----

VR had started out relatively simple. Yagyuu could recall his first forays into it as a teenager, right after the network had been re-established in the wake of the big crash in 2012; that'd been when the corporations had decided a fresh start wouldn't hurt the system, and had tried to set the network up to be the internet as it could have been. Better organised, more secure (though that was almost enough to make even Yagyuu laugh). Full-immersion VR had been someone's idea of a toy to keep programmers busy, in all probability. Then, it had been simple 3-D representations set against the raw grid of cyberspace. Now, people created extended and complex metaphors for their domains, filling in the scenery and even supplying appropriate sound effects in an attempt to make the whole thing seem more convincing. The facsimile of a feudal Japanese landscape which had arranged itself before him was a classic and fairly popular example, but at least it was tasteful. It was also deeply typical of the corporation who owned it, from what Yagyuu knew.

He also noted, not without a trace of amusement, that Yanagi's avatar would have fit seamlessly into the corp's metaphor without alteration or masking, had they been trying to interact with it in any normal way. If anything, Yanagi's representation of a traditional Japanese noble was a little too accurate for the setting the corporation had created. This place was more about the general look of the thing than accurate historical detail, and Yanagi was, after all, probably as much of a perfectionist as Yagyuu in his own way.

In any case, the simplest route for them to take was to adhere to the rules laid out by the metaphor until such a time as they needed to break them; it made it rather less likely that they'd be noticed by security programmes or corp employees.

Security here was still fairly light, as they walked down a dusty road between fields towards a fortified town. There were occasional guards, but the noble and his retainer passed by unnoticed and unquestioned until they stood at the gates of the town. (In a room somewhere in Tokyo, Yagyuu's fingers flew over a keypad, kicking programmes into life and loading up icebreakers; beside him, Yanagi was doing the same.) A quick negotiation with the guards at the gate proved their credentials (Yagyuu privately admired the quality of Yanagi's deception software), and they swept inside.

From then on, it was a series of ever more elaborate deceptions, some of them played out visually in VR, others going beyond the unspoken rules of the game, tricks on an unseen level. Yanagi was adept at this, as much as Niou was at tricks in reality, and Yagyuu couldn't match him. Not that he wasn't good; but his true area of expertise was the hardware, after all. For now, with Yanagi keeping everything under control, he could take a relatively passive role and clean up anything which Yanagi couldn't spare enough attention for. Even Yagyuu could admit that there was never any shame in playing second to one of the Three. They had always been in a class of their own, and even now, Yanagi remained so. From the rumours so did Sanada, and who knew about Yukimura, these days?

When they found what they were looking for, it was in a place where the metaphor didn't hold, a little blankly grey area with blocky, inelegant forms representing the data files. It wasn't surprising; why put effort into an area which was so carefully sealed away?

Yanagi was already engaged in extracting the information when Yagyuu became aware that another avatar had appeared in the 'room'. Back in reality, his fingers took up their high-speed dance again, getting a trace on the newcomer. Not from within the corp; somewhere in Tokyo, though...

There. That location was one usually used by Hyoutei. Couple that with the fact that the avatar looked like it had been constructed by someone fairly sane and highly skilled, and there was only one likely candidate. Time to make an educated guess.

_Ohtori,_ he sent so that Yanagi would pick it up as well, _an unexpected pleasure. I hope Shishido is well._

-----

Niou stretched in a fluid motion, feline, and began to prowl the flat. It was a small space, crowded with the four of them, even if only two of the people in the place were actually _there_ in any sense but the physical. Kirihara was looking thoroughly bored, regarding Yanagi and Yagyuu's vacant forms with slight annoyance; a bored and annoyed Kirihara was probably most people's idea of a liability. Once, Niou might have considered the prospect to be a source of near-endless amusement, but he'd turned down Yagyuu's offer of a trip into VR for a reason, after all. He leaned in towards Kirihara, and flicked the younger man's nose, a little gesture reminiscent of when Kirihara Akaya had really been the kid of their group.

"Hey, Kirihara, c'mon through to the other room," he grinned, and practically dragged his victim away, moving too swiftly for any kind of protest to make it out of Kirihara's mouth. He wanted to ask a few questions, and didn't think he wanted to know what either Yanagi or Yagyuu would do to him if he and Kirihara broke their concentration by talking at a critical moment. He must be getting to be almost responsible in his old age, he thought, and only just managed to avoid laughing out loud at himself.

"So," he released Kirihara, who shot him a slightly confused look, "you and Yanagi? Spill."

Kirihara's eyes narrowed.

"You, Niou," he grumbled, "are a fucking gossip. You know that?"

"I know," Niou's grin widened. "So are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"No, I don't think I am, actually. What about you and Yagyuu, if you're going to be like that?"

Ah. Yes. Conversations with Kirihara never went in quite the direction you wanted them to; but then again, Niou thought, it was possible he'd been unconsciously wanting to talk about this all along. Still... he should be doing a better job of directing the conversation than this.

"Brat. There's nothing to tell."

Kirihara treated him to a look of pure disbelief.

"What? I mean it. There's nothing."

"Sure. And Sanada was just friends with Yukimura."

Niou rolled his eyes, and reached for a cigarette, almost a reflexive action. Kirihara held out a hand.

"Only if you talk," Niou laughed at Kirihara's expression. Maybe tormenting the kid hadn't quite lost all of its charm yet.

"We just spend time together," Kirihara snapped, before adding more quietly, "and if there's anything more to it, it's really none of your damn business, Niou."

Niou scowled, but threw a cigarette at the younger man anyway. It was true; this wasn't _really_ anything to do with him. It was probably mostly the strangeness of his relationship with Yagyuu which was making him so curious; it wasn't like he'd actually bothered himself over the relationships which had gone on in Rikkaidai before, or actively tried to find out what was going on in them. What he'd been able to observe from the way people interacted had always been plenty -- or sometimes a bit too much, even for him.

Kirihara was sprawled across Yanagi's bed, smoking and staring at the ceiling. He looked like he was thinking about something; Niou gave it about another thirty seconds before another question about Yagyuu arrived. Kirihara felt like surprising him, though, it seemed. It only took about ten seconds, and when it came it was delivered with a mixture of amusement and irritation.

"Niou, I dunno what the fuck is going on with you and Yagyuu, but just sort it out already. How many years is it gonna take you?"

The Trickster blinked, and it was maybe just a second too long before he shrugged in dismissal. It occurred to him that he should really have remembered the random flashes of insight that Kirihara could be prone to; it was faintly embarrassing that the guy seemed to be manoeuvring Niou around to talking about his own life, considering the information he'd actually been after. He could probably use tiredness as an excuse. It had been, a quick count-up indicated, more than twenty-four hours since he'd slept last. A proper rest should have him back on form, but until he could get that, he might as well go and find out what was happening in VR. He muttered a vague excuse to Kirihara, who didn't look like he was planning to move for a little while.

What Niou really believed in, he thought as he made himself comfortable in a chair in the kitchen area where all the tech was temporarily set up, was control. Not in the sense Yagyuu believed in it; the opposite, if anything. Yagyuu controlled himself, and Niou controlled other people, in a whole variety of ways, most of which would be entirely unexpected to anyone who knew him by reputation only -- or that was the theory. It wasn't working out too well any more. He'd thought, earlier that day, that things had been well under control, from the job to his manipulation of Yagyuu; he'd definitely been wrong about one, and he was beginning to lose confidence in the other. It was possible he'd made a mistake; Yagyuu had definitely not pushed him away, but his partner had seemed confused.

What would Yagyuu be thinking now, about Niou's flirting? He wasn't absolutely certain; he could make guesses, but he was more likely to be wrong when Yagyuu Hiroshi was concerned.

The irony of the fact that he'd miscalculated Yagyuu more than once in the past when they were capable of acting like one another well enough to fool the world wasn't lost on him. It seemed, he thought with no little frustration, that they were good at confusing each other. It wasn't a talent many people had, in either case, and Niou should have hated Yagyuu for it; instead, when he'd first realised that Yagyuu wasn't as dull and predictable as the world believed, he'd developed a fascination with him. He was peculiar and he was a challenge.

He'd been a challenge for eight damn years now. Both of them had changed, over and over again, but Yagyuu was always just a little way beyond his grasp.

Belatedly, Niou realised he'd been staring at the VR goggles without moving for about ten minutes, entirely lost in thought. Kirihara was right, he needed to sort this out -- introspection really didn't suit him.

He slipped the goggles on, latched on to Yagyuu's connection, and VR spread out around him just in time for him to catch sight of someone taking a wild lunge at Yagyuu's avatar.

Right. _That_ was why he hated being a passenger on someone else's link.


	6. Chapter 6

_Here. Have some UST and some plot. Not particuarly in that order. I'm beginning to see an end in sight for this part of the story, but not the AU setting or the overall arc of the plot, so much. Once we're done here we move to Hyoutei, and maybe to other members of Rikkaidai. Two more sections primarily focused on Niou and Yagyuu after this one, which means somewhere between 6000 and 12000 words to go, depending on how much detail I feel like going in to._

On another random attention-whore note, I sort of dislike doing this, but if you appreciate the story or if you have any big problems to flag up, could you leave me a review? I'm just a little bemused at the number of hits per chapter this story has versus the number of reviews. It'd be nice to know what all these people who're apparently reading actully think.

_I'm done now. On with the show. _

* * *

**- Part Six -  
**

Yagyuu had expected a little more time before they came to blows, although if Ohtori was here because he was working for the corp then the actual fight was inevitable. He had not expected Ohtori to launch his avatar straight into an offensive configuration, but from the way he was moving through the unreal space of VR he couldn't have much running other than attack programmes. Pulling up layers of defence, as fast as he could, Yagyuu barely managed to avoid the first assault, concealing his avatar's location for long enough that Ohtori lost his lock and had to start again. It had been extremely close, but he could blame that on his injured arm. When it came to virtual combat, fractions of seconds made a difference, and his injury was more than enough to slow him noticeably in the high-speed system of cyberspace.

A few more passes, a few more evasions, one attempt at his own offensive, and it was becoming obvious that what Ohtori had going for him was the speed of his attacks. He must be able to manipulate programmes frighteningly fast, but at the same time, his technique wasn't actually that good. The speed made it effective, unless you were good at evasion, and also made it harder to find openings for attacks of your own, but he couldn't hold a lock too well; Yagyuu figured corps and hackers everywhere should fear the day he got _that_ problem fixed. His frustration at Yagyuu's constant evasion was beginning to show, however, even in VR where people's emotions were so hard to discern most of the time. Yagyuu, for his part, was becoming aware that back in reality, his arm was hurting. A little too much strain after the events of the previous day, he supposed.

_What is your purpose here, Ohtori?_ Yanagi sent, suddenly; he must have managed to free his attention from tearing apart the corp's encryption for a moment.

_That is not your concern_, Ohtori shot back, but his avatar was slamming up line after line of defences as he apparently realised who he was facing. Yagyuu was infamous but Yanagi was legendary, and not to be taken lightly. Ohtori would be weighing up his options carefully at this stage.

_That's an odd thing to say, if he's working for the corp. And he hasn't called in backup, either... has he?_

It took Yagyuu a moment to realise that Niou had sent that message, and that it had only been sent to him. Of course, that was about all Niou could do as a passenger, but what surprised Yagyuu was that he hadn't even noticed Niou linking in. It must have occurred during the fight, when his attention had been fairly thoroughly taken up with other things. It was probably just as well he couldn't see Niou's face, or hear his tone of voice; he was unlikely to be pleased, right now.

_Yagyuu_, Niou sent again, _he's not here on their business. He thinks you two are, though._

Ah. Yes. Sometimes, Niou's brain worked altogether too fast. If he'd come to that conclusion, though, Yagyuu trusted his judgement; in professional matters, Niou could be relied upon. Usually.

_We're not part of the security, _he sent to Ohtori, _and I don't believe you are either, which renders this all rather pointless. What is your purpose here?_

There was a definite pause, at that. Ohtori's avatar made a sign of submission, non-aggression. After a second which seemed to stretch out for entirely too long, Yanagi's did the same. The fight was over, for the moment.

_Information, _Ohtori admitted. Yagyuu could practically feel Niou's self-satisfied smirk. _But we were sure you were a part of it, after the incident in the facility._

Yagyuu considered these words. Niou was certainly doing the same, at several times the speed, but Yanagi's attention was probably still half diverted towards the encryption.

Something about Ohtori's turn of phrase made him think there was a considerable amount going on that they still weren't aware of. What were they meant to have been a part of?

_Wait a minute, _he got from Niou, _I need to check on something._

_What do you mean?_ Yagyuu sent back; but Niou's link was already dead.

Niou disconnected, reached for his phone -- less private than a mental link, but it didn't require as much effort to set up, and you only had to know a number to reach someone. Besides, the link headware wasn't precisely legit without pretty heavy regulation, so not everyone had it fitted. He didn't have the kind of extensive web of contacts some runners like Yanagi had, but he was pretty sure he could get hold of someone who'd be able to tell him what he wanted to know. It was just a confirmation of suspicions, really.

Four calls later, and he'd heard everything he needed. It was no wonder Ohtori was on edge; from the sound of things, Hyoutei was practically at war right now, and didn't even know who it was fighting. Kirihara was watching him curiously from a corner, but the younger man hadn't said anything to him since he'd gone to connect to VR. He was glad Rikkaidai's little demon seemed to be feeling fairly level-headed today despite his earlier baiting; a dose of Kirihara's temper wouldn't be helpful, at this stage. Apparently, though, Yanagi was doing some good -- even if he couldn't exert nearly the level of control that Yukimura once had. Kirihara would be ok for a little while yet.

For now, he should see how things were unfolding in VR, and give Yagyuu an update on the situation. It seemed unlikely that Ohtori would have told them much while he was gone, all things considered.

This situation seemed to consist of complication upon complication. Niou didn't like it, though it was undeniably more _interesting_ than the average job.

Back in the artificial space of VR, things still seemed relatively calm. Yanagi and Ohtori looked to be engaged in some manner of negotiation.

_What did I miss?_he asked Yagyuu.

_Not much. But you were right. Don't cut off like that._

Niou laughed a little, privately. _You know you love me._

_Perhaps, _Yagyuu sent back, _but that's beside the point._

It wasn't often, Niou reflected briefly, that he was at such a complete loss for words. It took him rather too long to remember that he was going to tell Yagyuu.

_By the way,_ he managed eventually,_ I don't know if Ohtori told you, but Hyoutei is pretty fucked right now._

_Eloquent, Niou,_ the reply came. _Would you care to elaborate, or are you going to sit there feeling smug about your investigation skills all night?_

Yagyuu, apparently, wasn't feeling terribly patient, although Niou could forgive him that much.

_I don't know much_, he admitted, _but Hyoutei is under attack as a unit. It's more or less a war, but they don't know who they're fighting against; they assumed we were at least a part of it, though. Ohtori will be here to try and find out more or less the same sorts of things we want to know. Maybe Yanagi should work with him on that, and you should get the hell out of VR and try working out what the chipset we stole actually is?_

There was some more discussion, but Niou's sense of smugness (momentarily shaken by Yagyuu's actually quite unexpected comment) was reinforced as events began to take the shape he had suggested. Before long, Yanagi and Ohtori had set to work together, although Ohtori seemed less than pleased with the situation; and Niou and Yagyuu were back in reality. Yagyuu was looking faintly tired, which seemed a little unfair to Niou, given that he was the only one who'd had any rest lately.

"This would be so much easier," Yagyuu was murmuring, a faint frown spreading across his face, "if I had access to my entire workshop, not just what we could carry easily. I'll take a look at what Yanagi has."

Kirihara shot Niou a despairing look behind Yagyuu's back as the neat man moved through the flat, checking equipment and assembling tools.

"Just talk to him, you bastard, before your sexual tension kills me," he muttered, when Yagyuu left the room for a moment. Niou ignored him, pointedly.

They didn't have time for that, right now. Emotions always had to be secondary.

He watched Yagyuu work, without knowing precisely what his partner was doing. It was obviously delicate work, and time-consuming, the sort of thing Niou would never have had the patience to learn. He'd performed a careful inspection of the hardware, then started working on it with other machines, painstakingly carefully and slowly. Yagyuu, whose patience was not infinite, whatever some people might believe, began to look somewhat harassed after the first few hours. Kirihara was beginning to edge slowly away from sanity in the next room, with no-one paying him any attention. Yanagi had surfaced briefly, a couple of times, to get a drink or throw a comment to Yagyuu which might as well have been in another language; and Niou was... waiting, with more restraint than he'd thought he'd possessed. He'd played his part for the moment. Now, it was Yagyuu's turn, and a chance for the reserved man to mend his pride after getting himself shot as the Trickster.

Yagyuu wasn't sure if Niou had been aware of how much his arm was hurting from trying to keep up combat speed in VR, but regardless, he was glad when he was offered an honourable way out. This work was easier for him, and more satisfying, although he had to work a little slower than usual -- it didn't matter if his reaction times were down a half-second, a second.

A few hours, and he had its basic structure down, had figured out what he'd need to do to read it, although it was going to take a good part of the night to rig together a set-up which could cope with the task, and he might have to get in a few extra parts. Once that was done, he'd be able to worry about encryption, or strange software he'd never heard of, or anything else a corporate research facility could throw at him, which was probably quite a lot. It was entirely possible the thing would be unreadable, when all was said and done, or that it might have a function which he could never hope to discover with the equipment available to him. There was nothing to do but try.

Niou was a constant presence, never quite touching him, but always close. It would have been comforting, if he didn't find himself wondering again and again what, precisely, Niou wanted from him at the moment. As it was, he was left slightly on edge, full of a kind of nervous tension. Had he been a less outwardly collected person he might have flinched away as Niou leaned in towards him, hand not quite brushing his neck as he reached for something nearby; or as the trickster walked past, just a little too close, hesitating by him a little too long. It wasn't that he didn't want Niou's touch, really; he wanted it a little too much in some ways. But he only wanted it if it meant something to Niou, too. Yukimura might have laughed at that, but without malice. _How old-fashioned, Yagyuu._ Niou might laugh at it, too, but if he did it would have a cruel edge to it. It seemed somehow improbable that Niou believed in any sort of emotional attachment stronger than the loyalty between friends. He shouldn't have made that comment, earlier; not even in jest.

He couldn't allow it to matter for the moment. They had to work, they had to be professional, and they certainly couldn't spare time to have a discussion (argument?) about the nature of their relationship. One day soon, though, Niou was going to try and push things to another level entirely, and if he did so wanting nothing more than casual sex every now and again then Yagyuu wasn't entirely certain how he would respond.

Niou walked back into the room, sure footsteps and the slight rustle of fabric against fabric; the sound of a barely suppressed yawn and then a slight sense of motion behind him as the trickster peered over his shoulder to see what the gentleman was doing, his messy hair tickling Yagyuu's neck. Yagyuu ignored the flare of emotion, focusing his awareness in until the world consisted of the components spread across the table in front of them and the tools he was using to manipulate them, with no room for anything (anyone) else. If he stayed focused, he could do this.

By the time Yagyuu cracked it, it was a fairly unreasonable hour of the morning. The flat was silent, now, except for the tap of keys where Yanagi was still navigating through VR, caught up in breaking through some apparently quite large obstacle. Niou was sleeping, sprawled awkwardly in a chair, a burnt-out cigarette held loosely between his fingers, and Kirihara had been silent for so long that he must have given up and gone to sleep as well. Yagyuu, eyes heavy with tiredness, sat and stared at the screen in front of him, not sure if he was fully comprehending what he was seeing; not even sure if it could be fully comprehended in the light of day, when he was more awake.

He was vaguely aware of Yanagi coming back to life across the room, shifting and stretching, looking distinctly tired. The hacker stood up, working life back in his limbs, and moved unhurriedly around to see what Yagyuu was doing; Yagyuu heard his sharp intake of breath as he looked at what was displayed on the screen, was sure that if he looked around he would see Yanagi's face full of curiosity, confusion, maybe a little fear.

"So this..." Yanagi breathed.

"Yes."

"No wonder this has been creating so much trouble."

"Yes."

Yagyuu pulled off his glasses, rubbed at his eyes, which would definitely rather be closed right now.

"I've got a little more information," Yanagi added, sounding just as exhausted as Yagyuu felt, "but it can wait. Look at this in the morning. Your performance will be considerably decreased if you don't rest. We've got some more pieces of the puzzle, but we're in no state to try and put it all together right now."

Yagyuu nodded. He had half a mind to fall asleep right there, at the table; moving seemed like altogether too much effort. A gentle hand on his shoulder indicated that the should stand, though, so he complied, and allowed Yanagi to guide him to a more comfortable seat.

"I'm sorry I can't offer you anything more comfortable," the other man commented apologetically, "but, as you see, this place is small."

Yagyuu shrugged absently as he settled down, finding a position which suited his injured arm. He didn't think this level of discomfort was going to be enough to stop him sleeping, right now.

Niou drifted back to consciousness too early, gradually becoming aware of the mass of aches he'd managed to gain in the course of the night, his mouth tasting of stale ash. Yagyuu and Yanagi had woke up already, he noted, as he opened one bleary eye; how was anyone's guess, considering they time they must have finally gone to sleep. The two of them were bent over something on the table, which apparently needed their full attention, and were talking quietly but urgently. Yagyuu had figured something out, then.

He stood, stretching out limbs, massaging his arms to relieve the ache around his implants, and moved over to try and see what had the two technophiles so interested and concerned. Yanagi moved aside a little to let him see, giving him a silent nod of acknowledgement.

Niou rubbed at his forehead, still waking up, and tried to figure out what he was looking at.

The screen was displaying a series of annotated diagrams, but what they were of was something he couldn't begin to figure out. Some seemed to be instructions for constructing hardware, of a type he didn't recognise; others were more... abstract, almost. It was these that Yagyuu and Yanagi were focused on, and while they seemed to understand more than Niou (who couldn't even grasp why this was important, without some explanation of what it all _meant_) there was still some level of incomprehension in their eyes. A kind of awe, too.

"What is it?" he asked, eventually, when it didn't look like anyone was going to volunteer the information.

"We're not certain," Yagyuu replied, voice still hushed, "but it looks like something to do with an AI."

Niou raised an eyebrow. Well, that was certainly...

"I didn't think anyone believed they actually existed," he commented, genuinely a little confused. Yanagi shook his head.

"There have always been rumours. If this is real, they're definitely not without basis."

"But how does it work? I mean, you're talking about genuine AI, I take it, not some shitty simulation of intellect."

Yagyuu looked over his shoulder at Niou, a trace of a smirk on his lips.

"We are indeed. And obviously it all works by magic, Niou." That was a foolish question, his expression added. If anyone really understood how it worked, the world would be in a lot more trouble than it was already.

"It's possible we'd be able to pick out a lot of the logic behind the creation process from the data we have here, actually," Yanagi interjected, taking a closer look at one image. "However... maybe it's best if no-one understands. AIs are not to be taken lightly."

"Best if it remains just like magic?"

"Quite."

Niou yawned, pulling himself back upright and stretching a little more. This was all getting far too philosophical.

"I can't deal with this shit first thing in the morning. You got any coffee, Yanagi?"


	7. Chapter 7

_Unless everything goes horribly weird, we are coming to the end of this story soon -- one further chapter, which I'll try to write fairly soon. I hope it's satisfactory, because as it turns out (this wasn't my intention to begin with) the story doesn't stand entirely alone. Still to come is a story devoted to Hyoutei and a story devoted to Rikkai's Three Emperors (sort of). Or something like that. As such, there are likely to be some questions you want to know the answers to which are barely touched on here. I'm going to apologise in advance for that..._

_Now on with the show._

* * *

**- Part Seven -**

No amount of coffee was going to make this conversation any less hard to follow, Niou decided. Yagyuu and Yanagi had descended into deeply technical speculation about what exactly this thing was, and he could only hope he'd be informed of their final conclusions. Meanwhile, he was left to contemplate the implications of throwing an AI into this already slightly incomprehensible situation. The main problem with that, of course, was that they were only rumours. There was no way of predicting how one would actually work, or what sort of things it might be capable of. They were almost legends of some of the stranger areas of Cyberspace, machine gods at the centre of a web of manipulation or playful entities with no discernible motives.

Damn, he just wanted to get out onto the streets and do something. But they couldn't, he knew, not until they at least had an idea of what they were doing. Did this change things, or could they still assume that they were going to be followed and that people were going to try to kill them over this? The period of grace they'd experienced since the explosion might be simply because they'd managed to avoid being followed, and hadn't yet been tracked down. After all, Hyoutei was...

Wait. What had Hyoutei been doing at the facility? They hadn't been working for the corp who ran it, despite appearances. And he should have spotted that earlier. If they had been, why would there have been no corporate security outside for backup? They'd probably already cut through a fair quantity of the corp's own guards if they were there on someone else's business. Whatever they'd been doing, it had merited the attention of people who, as far as he knew, were core members of the group.

"Yanagi," he broke in, cutting across what was probably just a repetition of something which had already been said twice over, "did Ohtori say what Hyoutei was doing at the facility? At all?"

"Breaking and entering, just like us. But he didn't say what they were looking for. Or if they found it. It might have been the same thing we were after, but there's a possibility it was something else entirely. There was a lot locked away in that room."

Niou nodded, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

"We need Marui. He could always get information out of Hyoutei, one way or another."

Yagyuu looked at him with a very slight frown.

"Niou, no-one has even heard of Marui's whereabouts in eight months."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. I was just saying..." he trailed off, helplessly.

"We're all there is. Unless you want to bring Sanada into this?" Yagyuu managed to make it sound like a threat. It probably was. Sanada remained one of the most highly skilled Street-Samurai in Japan, but even Yanagi at his most charitable would not claim that he was as sane as he used to be.

"I just think maybe we should try to talk to Hyoutei. That's all."

Yanagi shook his head slightly.

"The problem is Atobe," he sighed. "He's proud, and is probably busy being outraged right now. He'll often only talk to people he respects, and that used to be Sanada for his strength and Yukimura because... you know." They knew. Everyone respected Yukimura, whether they wanted to or not. "I was not one of his favourites, even when things between our groups were good. He appreciates... skill, but also a certain kind of style."

Niou had a sudden disconcerting sense that everyone in the room was looking at him. There was a pause.

"Looks like you've just been volunteered, Niou," Kirihara called from the doorway. "Have fun in the war-zone. I almost envy you."

The fact that Kirihara probably actually meant it wasn't much consolation, really. Still, he'd wanted to get out there and do something.

"Niou doesn't have to do this," Yanagi told Kirihara firmly, "if he feels it is too dangerous."

It was said in an absolutely factual manner, with no hint of provocation. Niou's resolve strengthened.

"I have most of your disguise kit," Yagyuu told him quietly. "You might require it. I doubt you want to walk around the streets looking like yourself, when people are almost certainly looking for us."

"You say it like you're not coming with me."

"I'm ___not_, Niou. I have work to do here."

"Really? Because it sounded to me like you two were going 'round in circles earlier. I need some backup, and I don't want that," he waved a hand in the direction of Kirihara, who looked briefly as though he was considering biting.

Yanagi gave Kirihara an unreadable look which Kirihara seemed to take as warning, and turned back to Yagyuu.

"You know, you've accessed all the data for us, I don't think there's much more you're actually required for. If I need you, I can send you a message over the link."

-

Disguising themselves as something which wasn't each other felt kind of strange, Yagyuu thought. Niou was wearing one of Yagyuu's suits, all of which were smart but unremarkable, but his hair was temporarily black and not even a little spiked; his little rattail was tucked away under the collar of the suit, barely noticeable. On the whole, he looked as much like an office worker as was possible -- so long as you didn't pay too much attention to his right eye, which was a cyberware replacement, with the logo of the company which had produced it printed across the iris. Niou had never actually mentioned it (or why he had it), but Yagyuu had noticed it a couple of times. You had to be standing very close to see.

Niou slipped on a pair of glasses -- a different design to Yagyuu's own, this time -- and Yagyuu nodded approval. The slight reflections off the glass covering his eyes made the logo invisible. Yagyuu was less drastically altered; his hair shade and style changed, coloured contacts making his eyes bright blue instead of hazel. Not prescription -- it wasn't like he actually needed glasses any more. His eyes might be real, but they weren't his originals.

"How do I look?" Niou asked, posing.

"The disguise is fine." But you look better normally.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." He grinned, a cheshire cat. Yagyuu gave him a steady look, knowing Niou would pick up on the disapproval in it.

"Let's go."

"So cold, Yagyuu," and there was an arm draped across his shoulder, the only familiar contact Niou normally demanded. He closed his eyes for a moment, considering pushing the other man away, but... no. It would only offend Niou. The only problem with it, as such, was that right now he really wanted more.

The streets were crowded, and almost shockingly normal. They'd spent too long shut up in that flat together, really; their current trouble had seemed to expand until it felt like it filled up the world. Seeing people going about their daily business was a little jarring, somehow, after their self-enforced confinement. Still, to the rest of the world they were (hopefully) just two more people going about their business.

Hyoutei was probably the only group of agents in Tokyo to have anything so formal as a base of operations; this, Yagyuu thought as Niou led him towards the building in question, said something about the wealth the group possessed -- and Atobe's confidence in his ability to bribe officials. It seemed to have been working well for them, until very recently.

The doors into the building were shut, and guarded. Nothing else seemed out of place; but of course, war for their kind meant skirmishes in alleys, not open assaults. Mostly Hyoutei had to worry about was its ability to carry on completing jobs when its members came under fire as soon as they were in public.

Niou, to Yagyuu's fascination and slight horror, walked straight up to one of the guards and began chatting with him. Standing further back, Yagyuu wasn't entirely sure of the exchange, but Niou's body language was clear enough; friendly, but somehow imposing, a little forceful. The guard seemed in awe of him, and was definitely buying whatever tale had been spun for him. It wasn't long at all before Niou gestured for Yagyuu to step forward, and the two of them were ushered inside.

The man who greeted them barely looked like an agent, even one of Hyoutei's Street Samurai, who were hardly the most typical examples of their kind. He was a slight man, with hair perfectly framing his face, probably manicured hands... he seemed a bit too soft, as thought he was a little too delicate in his disposition for this sort of thing. But, of course, looks were deceptive. Yagyuu had reason to know this. This man definitely carried himself well, with a kind of strength to his movements. Not as soft as he looked.

"I am Taki," he said smoothly, giving them a small bow, "And you will be Niou and Yagyuu, I suppose; we've been expecting to see some of Yanagi's people since Ohtori reported back to us this morning. Atobe will see you shortly, although he is of course a busy man."

Taki... Niou looked as though he recognised the name, though Yagyuu couldn't place it. He didn't know Hyoutei well, though, beyond the near-legendary name of Atobe Keigo. Yagyuu would have to ask later. It probably wasn't very important, anyway, but he liked to know as much as possible about his contemporaries. And what had Taki just said? Some of Yanagi's people. That was new. When had they become Yanagi's in the eyes of the world, instead of Yukimura's?

Taki led them to a room with simple but expensive-looking decoration, gestured for them to wait inside, bowed again and left. Niou looked around, obviously taking in the statements of wealth which were everywhere. Atobe's doing. If Yukimura had shaped Rikkai, Atobe had shaped Hyoutei just as much. Yagyuu supposed that the difference was that Atobe wanted to be looked up to and admired, adored; Yukimura got all of that effortlessly, simply by existing. It had been a strength of theirs, but it had become their weakness. They had genuinely loved their leader, each in their own way. He wasn't so sure about where Atobe stood with his group.

Atobe would definitely let them wait for a while. He wanted the information they might be able to give him, Yagyuu was sure, but he wouldn't want to seem desperate and he wouldn't want to let them negotiate on their own terms. Everything would be done his way, or not at all, if he was the kind of man Yagyuu believed him to be.

In the end, Atobe allowed them to wait for precisely an hour. Niou had spent much of that stretched out along a sofa, looking utterly relaxed, although Yagyuu was reasonably sure that it was something of an act for the benefit of anyone who might be watching them. Yagyuu himself had spent it sitting very upright, flicking absently through a book. They were still disguised; it didn't particularly matter either way. No-one at Hyoutei knew what Yagyuu really looked like, although a few had worked with Niou in the past.

At the end of the hour, Taki returned and gestured for them to follow him. They were taken through the building to a large office, where a man who could really only be Atobe was sitting, either working or making a good pretence. He looked up as they entered, sharp eyes focusing on the pair of them, and dismissed Taki, urging them to sit.

-

There were a lot of words which could be used to describe Atobe Keigo, but none of them seemed quite right to Niou. Flamboyant? Well, yes, he was, but... not quite. Imperious? But Sanada was (had once been) imperious, and Atobe was nothing like Sanada. Atobe was simply Atobe, really. One of a kind, at least in their world. He had money, and influence, and yet he lived his life outside the law anyway. It was hard to understand -- most people were forced into it. But then, he knew nothing of the real person behind Atobe's public face. There would definitely be reasons, somewhere in there.

"I do hope you're troubling me for a good reason," Atobe stated as they sat, pushing his keyboard away to one side so he could lean on the desk, facing towards them. "I'm really exceptionally short on time today."

"I should imagine so," Niou replied, smiling broadly, "what with all the attacks. Must complicate your paperwork horribly."

Atobe raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Niou allowed his smile to widen a little more.

"I figure we both have some info the other could maybe use. Seems there's a lot of trouble going around at the moment, yeah? Seems like it's maybe all linked in, too."

Atobe gave a brief nod, indicating that he should keep talking. So far, so good.

"We both did a job at the same facility, at the same time. You'll know the one I mean, I'm sure," we gave you reason to remember it, he added to himself. "Everything started there. We want to know what, exactly you were doing there."

Atobe nodded again.

"And in return?"

"You tell us yours, we'll tell you ours, yeah? There's something going on here. It involves all of us."

Niou wondered briefly if they might not have made a mistake. It could be coincidence, Hyoutei could have angered someone through another action, but the investigation Ohtori was carrying out... Yanagi seemed to believe there was more going on, and Niou had definitely been under the impression that there was a link himself.

Atobe's face, carefully interested, dismissed any concerns he might have had.

"I believe we could come to an arrangement along those lines," Atobe said airily, reaching for a switch on his desk. There was a pause, a sound of static, and then a voice came through, a little distorted.

"Atobe?"

"Hiyoshi. Get someone who has a free moment to bring in drinks for four. And get Oshitari up here."

The rest of the meeting was all very careful, all very professional. Oshitari and Yagyuu did most of the talking, while Atobe listened to make sure everything was to his liking. Niou was happy to let Yagyuu take over for this; he'd been there for initial impressions, making sure they got seen.

"The job was to retrieve some hardware," Oshitari told them, and described it, drew diagrams. Yagyuu was looking at it with interest; there were two items, one of which was the storage device they'd retrieved. The other one did look sort of similar, definitely another storage unit of some kind.

"Although of course, we only found the first one," Oshitari finished, just about keeping the bitterness out of his voice.

"Did you manage to hand it over?" Yagyuu asked. Oshitari gave him a curious look.

"No. The attacks began immediately after we retrieved it and we've been locked down here ever since. We were the first targets, actually... we assumed you were somehow responsible, at the time. It seems we were in error."

"Have you looked at it, then? What it contains?"

Oshitari glanced to Atobe then, seeking approval. He found it.

"Ohtori and Taki have been trying. Nothing, so far."

Niou felt an odd sort of pride at that. Yagyuu had been better, done it quicker.

Apparently satisfied for the moment, Yagyuu began to outline their side of things. It wasn't until the final part, when the AI was mentioned, that Niou could really see Atobe and Oshitari sitting up and paying attention. Yeah, that would get them to take notice. It sounded so dramatic, almost sensationalist, except that Yagyuu was being unbelievably matter-of-fact about it all.

It was such a weird sight, really. It had been pretty recently that they'd fought: Oshitari had a dark bruise along one side of his jaw where Niou's boot had connected. Yagyuu's arm was still encased in a support, and it could well have been Oshitari who'd shot him, for all they knew. Well, that was the way their world worked. Alliances outside of the groups they belonged to were loose and could be called off at any time, but rivalries were no more lasting, on the whole. It was all just work, until shit like this happened and forced people together. Whatever "this" was.

_-_

They'd set up a link so they could talk privately on their way back to Yanagi's home. They were making their way back along the same route, but walking apart, and travelling by a convoluted route.

___What did you make of that?_ Niou asked him. Yagyuu could see him about ten metres ahead, walking in a stiff, hunched sort of way, as though he was trying to block out the world. So very unlike Niou; but they were both good at masking their natures, after all.

___Interesting. Atobe was surprisingly co-operative._

___Yeah_, Niou sent,_must be desperate._

___I'm inclined to agree. It cannot be a comfortable situation for Hyoutei. They have a reputation to uphold._ Not like...

___Not like us sad bastards_, Niou commented, cutting across and completing his thought in one move.

___Quite. Oshitari sent me a message to say it was not their first job like this. This should have been the final one of a series. I do not know what would have happened had we not been there._

___I guess we should just be glad they didn't beat the shit out of us and get us to hand the other unit over as soon as we showed up, _Niou commented, helpfully.

Yagyuu considered this.

___They have too much of a sense of honour. There was some sort of agreement between Ohtori and Yanagi. Hyoutei are the self-titled modern Samurai: nothing to do with the historical figures, but it's true that they have created a position for themselves where they adhere to a strong code. Rare, really._

He was sure Niou was rolling his eyes.

___Oh. A lecture on honour. Is this a hint?_

And that would be playful but a little sharp. With Niou, he didn't need to be able to hear him to pick out the subtleties of meaning which so often got lost in link exchanges.

___Not particularly. I'm quite fond of you as you are, _he told the trickster, _although you can be perfectly infuriating if you try._ And you have been trying lately, he added privately. Make up your mind, Niou. Tell me what you want.

___Anyway, I figure that if the other unit turns out to have stuff on the AI as well then Hyoutei must have been working for another corp who wanted in on the whole AI thing,_ came Niou's next message. A sudden jump back to work; not unexpected, with Niou, and definitely not without reason, but frustrating.

___And then who have we been working for?_ Yagyuu enquired. Yanagi had given him such theories as he'd been able to come up with on the subject earlier based on the previous night's research, but he was interested to see what Niou made of it.

Niou seemed to spend a moment thinking._Rival who wants to screw up the plans? Concerned party who doesn't want another AI on the scene? Hey, that's a point, what about the AI itself?_

___You're suggesting we were working for an AI?_

___Why not? Weirder shit has happened._ Well, Niou had a point there, although...

___Not that much weirder, I think you may find._ But it was true that it was just about possible. To what end, though?

___To stop itself being manipulated or copied. We have a bit of the data about it, yes, so they're missing some stuff. Might be important. Or else..._

___Niou,_Yagyuu cut in,_what about the fact that people have been trying to kill us? And trying to kill members of Hyoutei? How does that fit in with such a theory?_

___Well, trying to destroy data about itself works fine. It may not have a concept of human life as being important, right? So we'd just be tools. Even more disposable than usual. Would've thought it'd be a bit more fucking careful. I hate being underestimated._

Niou was serious about this. It might have occurred to some people to wonder if it was an elaborate joke, but Yagyuu knew where the boundaries between play and work lay in Niou's mind, and this wasn't something he would joke about, except perhaps to throw a few off-colour jokes in with his explanation if he was feeling perverse.

___And Hyoutei?_ he asked, just to see if Niou had any more disturbing insights to share.

___Could be coincidence. Bad timing. Weirder things have happened, right? Could be-- shit._ Niou cut off abruptly, and Yagyuu could see him moving hurriedly towards a metro station. He followed, as subtly as possible.

___Think we've got company,_ was the next message, and then they were caught in the press of people trying to force their way onto an already crowded train. Yagyuu hurriedly sent Yanagi a message over the link to update him on the situation, followed by a message detailing what they knew and what Niou thought, just in case.

_-_


	8. Chapter 8

_Part 8 of 9. This was going to be the last chapter but it was getting overly long. I'm very sorry this took so long._

_All the usual warnings -- language, violence, crime, Niou, Kirihara..._

_I'm still trying to work out if it's actually possible to format this fic as I want on -- leaning towards no. It's only the first section which is messed up. I guess I'll just live with it and tell you that it looked neater on LJ?  
_

* * *

**- Part Eight -**

--Wide-Area Connection Open--

--Location 00365.7866.674.22 Masked--

--ID YH Alias Gentleman--

--Check Messages--

--2 New Messages--

1

From: YR -Master-

Time/Date: 16:45

Location: Masked

Subject: A Problem

Message: Received the following communication from someone/thing using the alias 'Lastlight' at 16:33 today. I have not yet responded to agree to or dismiss the demands made but I suspect I cannot delay long. (Further comments follow the forwarded message.)

_-to the individual known as master_

_-i am the construct known as lastlight_

_-i make this attempt on behalf of the construct characters not recognised_

_-of which i am an avatar_

_-the individual known as master is in possession of data relating to the_

_-construct characters not recognised_

_-the construct requires that this data be immediately erased_

_-in the event that it is not measures will be taken to ensure that it cannot_

_-be used_

_-lastlight_

I have considered destroying the storage device already, but this entire business confuses me, and I wish to have something to bargain with -- even if we comply with the demands, we may still find ourselves in trouble from other sources. Niou may have some ideas; he is good at reading odd situations without a great deal of data to work from.

- YR

2

From: SG -Samurai-

Time/Date: 17:06

Location: 00365.7866.675.97

Subject: YR's Whereabouts

Message: I know you have been spending time with Renji lately. Why is he not responding to messages? His ID is unreachable. If you are with him, you may inform him that I will work out why he has been keeping information from me. I know he has been.

Regards,

SG

--Wide-area Connection Closed--

--Direct link with NM closed--

--Attempting to open direct link with YR--

--Attempt failed: YR not available (check ID)--

--Attempting to open direct link with KA--

--Attempt failed: KA refused--

--Attempting to open direct link with NM--

--Link open--

_Niou, we have a new problem._

-----

They'd been on the metro for almost forty-five minutes, and there was a definite sense that they were simply delaying an inevitable confrontation. Yanagi had apparently received the info-dump Yagyuu had sent, and had forwarded Yagyuu a message, but since then had been unreachable. Kirihara could be located but refused to open a link or respond to messages, which meant something pretty serious must have happened. An avatar of something which sounded like an AI and had a name no-one's unit could recognise was making non-specific threats against them as a group. He and Yagyuu were on a metro train with a group of men who were presumably were waiting until they got off to do them some damage (or try, at least). Sanada had picked up on the fact that something was wrong and could throw himself into the whole mess at any moment.

All in all, things were just _fantastic_.

All they needed now was... Niou halted that train of thought there. He wasn't generally superstitious but he had a nagging feeling that thinking up new problems right now would just be tempting fate.

The first thing they had to do was get off the metro, and either lose or eliminate the men following them. Ideally, they should get hold of one and find out who exactly they were. He communicated this idea to Yagyuu over the link, and received a brief but approving response. Right. The trick to this would be finding the right place to get off the train. They should be able to exit the metro into a busy street, but be close to alleys. Hopefully ones which Niou knew well. They needed to outmanoeuvre these men, and they needed to fight on their own terms.

He knew the perfect place.

The main road through Fifteenth district was home to a kind of unofficial market which had grown up over the years because, in a place like Fifteenth, no-one could be bothered to remove all the street vendors who set up their stalls from time to time. It was noisy, and smelled of a confusing mix of hot food and raw meat, and you couldn't walk more than a few steps without someone trying to relieve you of your money in any one of a variety of ways which ranged from forceful salesmanship to tearing your jacket off your back. Niou had grown up in neighbouring Fourteenth, and knew it well. People here didn't give him trouble; he walked like he belonged. Yagyuu was another matter, but after the first few overly enthusiastic individuals were met with just enough force (Niou felt proud, watching how Yagyuu handled the situation) the inhabitants of the district seemed to write him off as more trouble than he was worth.

They were still being followed, but not as closely. From what Niou could tell, they'd hit it lucky, and the men didn't know this area. They were having to fight their way through the crowds, while Niou and Yagyuu were (with a little gentle suggestion) being allowed just enough space that their progress was considerably easier. When he judged they'd opened enough space between them Niou grabbed Yagyuu's arm and pulled his companion into a particularly crowded area, trying to get them lost amongst the people browsing the market stalls there. Eventually satisfied, he ducked into a back street, and stripped off his jacket. As he began removing his shirt he noticed Yagyuu giving him a look which seemed to hover somewhere between amusement and an intense kind of interest.

"What?" he queried, slipping the shirt off to reveal one of his more typical tops beneath it, "You thought I was stripping for you? Sorry, darling. Just needed to lose the suit jacket so I can move better." He packed the clothes away, throwing the glasses into his shoulder bag too, almost as an afterthought. "I give it another five minutes before they follow us down here. Let's get in position."

-----

These men were not corporate security, and they were not from any gang Yagyuu had heard of, although that didn't rule out one of the smaller or more secretive ones. They were not agents, either, though. They seemed to be almost professional, but not quite. He and Niou were professional; even when Niou felt like making foolish comments the job got done anyway. These men didn't run smoothly enough. They might have been people who were trying to establish themselves, but in general people working as agents either got things right very quickly or died (equally quickly). Mostly, they were getting it right. They just lacked a certain fairly undefinable quality that the people who were going to make it invariably had.

_These guys have no edge, _Niou sent, as though he'd read Yagyuu's thoughts.

Someone else might have said it would be easy, but things could go wrong in any situation: that was being realistic, not pessimistic. It was, however, far from the most challenging situation they'd found themselves in since this business began.

Niou was concealed on one side of the alley, perched on the ledge of a shuttered first storey window like an oversized crow with his hair still black and an intense focus on his face. Yagyuu could see him because he knew where the man was, but he was almost lost in the shadows if you weren't expecting him to be there. And who would be looking? Creative use of wrist-blades allowed Niou to climb fairly improbable surfaces. Yagyuu was further down the alley, where a space between buildings allowed him to remain out of sight.

It did not take long, once the men appeared. Niou picked several off with soft ammo, leaving them unconscious; Yagyuu was left to corner the last man standing. The man was too surprised to offer resistance when the Gentleman appeared in front of him, gun drawn; it was possible that he hadn't actually taken the time to register the fact that his companions weren't dead.

"Good evening," Yagyuu said, unsmiling. "I would very much like you to answer some questions for us, if you would be so kind."

"I don't know anything," the man said, too fast, the words barely distinguishable. He had the look of an animal caught in headlights.

"No? What organisation are you a part of?" Yagyuu's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. "Or do you not have that information?"

"St. Rudolph," the man managed, still obviously not in touch with the situation. Niou was probably laughing, or at least smirking, out of sight. St. Rudolph were a peculiar group. Technically agents but mostly freelance smugglers, and fallen from grace somewhat even in that role. Their inside politics were, by all accounts, odd.

They were not a logical choice to hire for anything, really, unless you specifically requested the services of one of their core members (which these men couldn't possibly be); they had a few people of some small note, good for doing odd jobs here and there, Yagyuu could concede.

To get them to send low-ranking members after Rikkai was... an interesting decision. You had to wonder why it had been made, really, Yagyuu mused.

"What were your orders?" He asked, pressing on. He was standing just out of arm's reach of the other man, now, holding the gun steadily, letting absolutely no trace of the dull ache spreading through his arm show on his face. Niou would have the situation covered anyway, but he wasn't going to display weakness.

"Follow you. Delay you if you headed in certain directions. Mizuki sent us..." he added, pre-empting Yagyuu's next question.

"Good. We like fast learners," Yagyuu told him. This was troublesome, though expected. With Mizuki as their fixer these men probably had no idea why they were doing the job, just that it was to be done. "Now. Where didn't your employer want us to go?"

-----

"So we're going...?"

"To Yanagi's place. While we're probably not being followed." Niou ran a hand distractedly through his hair, messing it up thoroughly.

"What about the place they were trying to keep us away from?"

Ah. Yes. That. It wasn't important, he was fairly sure. "I think we're _meant_ to think it's important and waste time chasing off there. If it actually was a critical location, they'd have sent someone better to make sure we didn't go there, rather than sending that kind of shit which would just make us curious without really stopping us," he explained, hoping like hell he was right. "For now, I want to know what the fuck is up with our data master."

-----

"Shit, what a mess," Niou said. His voice sounded flat, as though he was trying very hard not to snap. Yagyuu couldn't disagree with the trickster's assessment. Things had been knocked over, thrown against walls, smashed; the door had, interestingly, been barricaded from the inside. Niou had forced it open, and now they were staring at the destruction inside Yanagi's home.

Niou moved around the main room, shifting things around, inspecting the damage. Yagyuu waited, as patiently as he could.

"This wasn't done systematically to try and destroy things," the trickster said eventually. "Looks like it was just from a fight." There was a pause as they both tried to imagine Yanagi fighting in a way which would leave the place looking like this.

"Kirihara?" Yagyuu suggested. Niou nodded, and pointed towards the door to the bedroom. There was blood on the frame, and a fading trail leading into the room.

Kirihara was crouched on the floor on the far side of the room, with his back towards them. Yagyuu watched, concerned, as Niou moved to check on the younger man; he couldn't see any obvious injuries from here, but then, all that was visible was the curve of his back as he hunched over. He seemed to be shaking slightly.

"Hey, Kirihara," Niou began, reaching out to touch Kirihara's shoulder. "Are you--" Yagyuu saw him stiffen and practically jump backwards; saw Kirihara turn to look at them; and saw that Kirihara's eyes were bloodshot.

Niou swore.

After that, it all got messy.

-----

This was something he'd heard about from Yanagi, in the form of a warning -- something which might happen, but they should hope never to observe at close quarters. This was his first time seeing it, but that was probably because Kirihara worked alone in situations where violence might be required; he'd never been sure if that was Kirihara's decision, or Yanagi's. Either way, the level of violence Kirihara was capable of when he was like this had definitely been the basis of the man's mixed reputation in the year since Yukimura's disappearance. Kirihara might not be the most gentle person in the world normally, but this was a different level.

His first instinct, when he saw Kirihara's eyes, was to put distance between them; but even though he recoiled the punch Kirihara threw towards his face still connected, making him stumble and wince. The red-eyed man smiled with a kind of twisted satisfaction, and Niou wondered if he should be actually afraid rather than just worried. There was obviously no distinction between friends and enemies for Kirihara at the moment. He looked like a wild animal, cornered.

"Kirihara, calm down," Yagyuu said from across the room, and the fact that Yagyuu could sound calm himself was annoying as hell, for just a moment. Kirihara seemed to have blanked his words, anyway; his eyes were fixed on Niou, disturbingly focused.

There was a blur of movement. Wired reflexes or not, Niou was too slow; another blow, this time to the stomach, knocked him backwards. Bent over and coughing, he dropped to the floor mostly on instinct, and felt the wind of another blow just over his head. Then Kirihara kicked him, forcing him to uncurl -- and the next thing he knew, there was sharp pain across his scalp as Kirihara grabbed him by the hair, hauled him up to stare him in the eye.

Niou didn't flinch. Recoiling from a blow was one thing, a reflex; looking away would have been weak. Besides, he thought he'd seen movement out of the corner of his eye, and if Kirihara kept staring at Niou he might not notice whatever Yagyuu was doing. He had to admit, though, that Kirihara's eyes were really creeping him out. Narrowing his own eyes slightly, he struck out at Kirihara's arm -- and wouldn't this be so much simpler if he didn't mind seriously hurting the guy -- and twisted, pulling free, ignoring the extra pain that caused. Kirihara was already lunging for him again, not giving him any space to breathe. A hand closed around his upper arm, began to twist, and--

Kirihara faltered, made a noise of surprise, and folded. Behind him, Yagyuu was already turning away, slipping a gun back into its holster. Niou stared.

"What?" Yagyuu snapped, visibly annoyed for once. "I _hit him_ with it. That's all."

-----

It wouldn't be long before Kirihara woke up, Yagyuu knew. He'd hit him as hard as necessary and no harder -- he wasn't Yanagi, calculating everything perfectly, but he could judge such things well enough. Kirihara would have a sore head, some bruising. He'd already checked to see if he'd caused any bleeding.

Niou was in a foul mood. It wasn't surprising, but it left the entire flat far too tense as he stalked around, moving in figurative and literal circles, getting nowhere. When Kirihara finally stirred, the trickster watched from a safe distance, leaving Yagyuu to deal with him. Again, unsurprising, but not terribly welcome.

Kirihara's eyes as he looked up at Yagyuu were normal but narrowed in suspicion.

"What the fuck? Did you need to do that?" he snapped, fingers cautiously exploring the back of his skull. Yagyuu treated him to a level stare.

"Yes. I quite like Niou's arm unbroken, and his face intact. What happened?"

Kirihara finally had the grace to look embarrassed about the whole thing. "Shit, I guess I did kinda lose it," he muttered, casting a glance in Niou's direction. Yagyuu didn't have to look around to know that Niou was glaring back. He could practically feel it.

"That's one way of putting it," Niou informed the younger man. Kirihara winced.

"Kirihara," Yagyuu repeated, "what happened? Where is Yanagi?"

"Oh, _fuck. _Yanagi." The dark-haired man was starting to his feet almost as soon as Yanagi was mentioned, and it was only Niou's reflexes which stopped him making it clean out of the room. "Let me go, you bastard," Kirihara growled, struggling to pull his arm away from Niou's grip. Yagyuu fancied the trickster was using slightly more force than was strictly required.

"Not," Niou told him, "until you actually tell us what happened. If you know where Yanagi is, you can tell us, instead of running off by yourself like an idiot."

"I don't know," Kirihara admitted, mumbling the words so Yagyuu could barely make them out. "I don't fucking well know. Didn't see. Bastards kept me busy, soon as I could pay attention to anything else he was gone. I've gotta follow them. Can't just let them take him."

"That would be unproductive," Yagyuu commented, already irritated by Kirihara's lack of cooperation, though his voice remained even. "You have no idea where they went, and they must have been gone for over an hour now."

"So? I can't just do nothing. Some of us actually give a damn, you know."

"It would be more helpful to let us know exactly what happened. Maybe then we can do something more useful than just chasing around with no idea where we should be looking."

Kirihara didn't have much information to share beyond what they'd already surmised. People -- no-one he knew -- had come. Yanagi had spoken to them, and they'd been threatening, although he hadn't heard the conversation. He'd stepped in, and been told to get lost; the situation had degenerated from there.

It was all horribly predictable, really.

The data storage unit was the only thing obviously missing from the flat, but that was horribly predictable too. Yagyuu had made a backup of it, but it made him feel uneasy, somehow, in light of everything else that had happened. He found himself seriously considering just wiping the data. But...

But.

That would be admitting defeat. They still had another option.

"Niou, do you remember how to set up the VR unit?" he asked, cutting across whatever argument Niou was having with Kirihara at that moment. "I need to try something."

-----

"This is quite possibly the most idiotic thing you've ever done, you realise," Niou pointed out, helping Yagyuu check the set-up of the somewhat patched up VR unit. He felt faintly proud. "I must finally be getting through."

He loved the concealed amusement in the apparently disapproving looks Yagyuu gave him for comments like that.

"But really, Hiroshi," he added when Kirihara was out of the room for a moment, "don't... you know." Don't get yourself into more trouble than you can get out of? Something like that.

Yagyuu just nodded, not looking up to meet his eyes. Niou caught himself feeling almost afraid; Yagyuu had come to a decision, and wouldn't be swayed. And Niou was beginning to see the shape of his plan. He didn't like it very much.

"Hiroshi," he insisted, fingers pulling Yagyuu's chin up to make the other man look at him. "Careful. None of us actually know what we're dealing with here."

Yagyuu nodded again, and Niou's sharp eyes searched his face, looking for traces of emotion. But really, Yagyuu would do whatever he wanted to do; he was quite a lot like Niou himself, in that respect.

"Stubborn," he muttered, leaning in to press their lips together for just a moment before turning away, hiding the weakness he was sure must show on his face somehow. "Well, we're ready. Here goes nothing?"

Niou watched as Yagyuu powered the unit up, switched his set-up to full VR, and became somehow _vacant_ as his mind slid away into cyberspace. He waited fully thirty seconds before hooking himself up as a passenger. He should be watching Kirihara; but right now, watching Yagyuu seemed far more urgent.

-----

He had no location to work from, but he could take some guesses. It wouldn't be the sprawl. Out there, the network was weaker, unreliable, shifting. Not enough connections. It would be somewhere at the heart of things; it might even still be within a corporate node, though there might be too much of a risk of detection in such a location.

He did not know exactly what he was looking for, but he thought he would know when he found it; it would be like nothing he had ever encountered before, after all.

-----

Yagyuu was moving through cyberspace at an almost dizzying speed. Niou couldn't really follow; it required practice to be able to take in so much at once, and sharp as Niou was, he didn't spend much time in the virtual world. He didn't send Yagyuu any messages or do anything to notify the other man of his presence; if he was noticed, that was alright. It didn't matter either way. Yagyuu was, though, probably too busy to pick up on his passenger.

He had a good idea of what Yagyuu was looking for, but no idea how he intended to find it; how did you find an AI if it didn't want to be found? He wasn't even sure how long the search went on, with Yagyuu diving from node to node, apparently careless -- even Niou could tell he wasn't taking the care to mask his presence that he usually would. But Yagyuu was never careless, and never untidy, especially not when hacking.

But... of course. If you wanted to find an AI and thought that the AI might, in turn, be looking for you... he would have smiled if he hadn't been aware of just what a dangerous game Yagyuu was playing.

Even as he thought it, everything changed. It was as though the layers of VR had been stripped away, right down to the base code, and then something was being built up in its place and--

The signal went dead. Niou was looking at static for a moment, and then even that faded out, and there was just the room.

And Yagyuu wasn't breathing.

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

_It has taken a long time, but it's done. I will warn that it's not perfectly wrapped up - but Niou and Yagyuu's part in events is over. Plans for a continuation involving Yanagi and Kirihara, and perhaps Yukimura and Sanada, remain. But I'm slow, so who knows when the next fic will happen. This one, though? Officially done. Enjoy._

* * *

There was nothing. It lasted for a moment - a second? Yagyuu couldn't say - and he had enough time to think _so this is what death is like, __then,_ before the world came back. A world, anyway. 

It wasn't the disjointed, miss-matched space of the matrix sector he'd been investigating before, and it was a long way from the crowded space of Yanagi's apartment. It wasn't even pretending to be real but somehow the surreal landscape managed to look more... solid, more convincing, than even the most skilfully coded pieces of virtual reality that he had previously encountered. In the matrix you could always tell you weren't in reality if you focused hard enough on the details. He had a sense that he could pay attention to detail here for as long as he wanted and not find anything to tell him how the place was created.

_This is not what I expected,_ he thought or maybe said - the distinction didn't seem to mean much here. He didn't have a body to speak with, but...

The words, _then what did you expect?_ lined themselves up in his mind, though he was not sure that he had actually heard them.

If this was not dying then perhaps it was going mad, he thought.

_Nothing much at all,_ he replied, because although he couldn't see anyone the silent emptiness felt somehow expectant. _But if you mean what I expected of my recent actions, I expected to die or succeed. _Which had happened remained in question.

_You are not dead,_ he was told, and if unspoken words could have sounded amused then these, he was certain, would have. _But your full attention is required. Distractions have been removed._

And there was someone, a figure amongst the solid-but-unreal shapes, though Yagyuu had no memory of seeing the individual appear. Its features were not those of anyone he knew, precisely, but he felt an unshakeable sense of familiarity. Non-specific, but definite.

_I am lastlight, _it said, or communicated,_ and the space you find yourself in is an expression of ----_

Even if Yagyuu couldn't discern the final... word, he found that he understood.

_Tell me what you want, then._

Lastlight smiled. Further familiarity; a nagging sense of a name on the edge of his mind.

_What I want is irrelevant. I am an aspect or avatar only. But I will tell you what is required of you._

And it told him; poured knowledge into his mind in a rush.

_Yes,_ he told it, when he'd processed the information sufficiently.

And he opened his eyes to reality, feeling light-headed and nauseous -- but alive.

"Niou?" he croaked, disturbed at how hard it was to speak, as though he was unused to controlling his own body. He briefly considered trying to reach Niou over their link instead, but he couldn't find the signal - a quick inventory showed that all of his software was closed off.

In retrospect it could only have been seconds, a minute or two a most, but the period for which Yagyuu had been... gone... had been a pretty good example of the relative nature of time, or some shit like that. And Niou had spent much of the time, however long it had been, freaking the hell out - for want of a more tactful way to put it. You always liked to think that you'd keep your act together in even the most stressful of situations, and in the past he generally had; had been able to think things through and, even if all else failed, just do something rather than freezing up.

He'd _tried_. It hadn't really worked. He hadn't known the correct things to do. He was no medic. But even so... there'd been the inescapable fear settling somewhere in his chest, telling him that this was_ it_ - and it'd seemed like it was far too soon, and just not right, but there hadn't been a thing he could do to change things.

And then Yagyuu spoke, and Niou just stayed frozen to the spot for a moment, because he had no idea what the hell would constitute an appropriate reaction and, hell, it was just possible that this was the stage at which the last fragments of his sanity gave up on him.

But Yagyuu was moving - adjusting his glasses and looking around, so that Niou could almost believe he'd imagined the whole damn thing, except Yagyuu's movements were clumsy and slow, and his body was shaking, ever so slightly.

Niou watched him silently, allowing himself to regain mental balance.

"Are you alright, Niou?" Yagyuu asked, cautiously, and that finally snapped Niou out of it: the sheer ludicrousness of having a man who had just been clinically dead for a minute or so enquiring after _his_ welfare.

"Yeah," he managed, trying not to laugh, "seriously, Hiroshi, what the fuck? You died. If I wasn't so glad to see you alive I could fucking _kill_ you." Which was his way of saying _don't scare me like that_. This much, at least, Yagyuu should be able to understand.

"I'm sorry," the Gentleman told him with a very small smile. "I... didn't anticipate this."

Which was weird. Yagyuu must have considered the possibility of dying; it was possible even when using the matrix in more ordinarily illegal ways. More probably what he meant was that he hadn't envisioned coming back, being flatlined and then restored to life. No middle ground; success or death. Niou had known that much before he'd let (though let wasn't really the right word) Yagyuu go on his mad quest, but still.

Fucking idiot.

Fucking typical of Rikkai as it had been, too. Which was why they'd always succeeded. But he was getting tired. Maybe they both were.

"You should've," he told Yagyuu, looking away. He was being slightly unreasonable, but he'd just had an unpleasant experience. "Knew there was a risk, but..." he shrugged awkwardly. Imagining Yagyuu dead, actually _gone._

"I know," Yagyuu replied, and Niou saw movement from the corner of his eye and was already beginning to look up when he felt Yagyuu's fingers under his chin, making him face his friend; a weird mirror of his last action before Yagyuu entered the matrix. They were very close, face to face; Yagyuu was still moving awkwardly, not fully in control of his body, but he could stand, so that was...

Yagyuu's eyes were really distracting.

"You're a bastard," Niou mumbled, and then Yagyuu kissed him and any other insults were temporarily forgotten.

It felt good; awkward because Yagyuu wasn't in the best physical state, but amazing because he'd taken the initiative. Niou really couldn't have asked for anything more.

"Ah..." Yagyuu managed a few minutes later, in a pause for breath. "This is enjoyable, but..."

Yeah.

"Work," Niou agreed vaguely, leaning against Yagyuu, not moving away. No avoiding it, pleasant as the distractions which suddenly seemed open to them would be. He wanted... he took a deep breath, willed himself to calm down. "How about we start with what the hell just happened? You met the AI?"

Yagyuu blinked at him with a _how did you know_ sort of expression, but Niou couldn't see what the hell else could have happened. There'd been no build-up, no warning, and if anything had the ability to instantly overload someone's brain to the level where they had no control over their body any longer without actually destroying them, it would be something like that. Leaps of logic were his speciality, after all, and he could tell from Yagyuu's reaction that he'd been correct.

"Yes," Yagyuu confirmed. "It is... very hard to understand, which I suppose is not unexpected. But I don't believe it understands us much better. And at least a part of what it wants is simple enough."

Right - the destruction of the copied code and data. But they knew it wanted that. Why bother flatlining Yagyuu? Just to make sure they were taking it seriously? If it wanted the data destroyed it could have killed him and sent in human agents - at least one of the groups involved in this mess had to be working for it, surely.

"What aren't you telling me?" he asked, because he still couldn't quite fit everything together, so something was missing and Yagyuu might have it. Yagyuu's arms tightened around him, possessive. Oddly reassuring.

"It gave me a lot of information," Yagyuu said quietly. "I agreed to a new contract with it." He didn't apologise for doing something like that without consulting Niou; the situation was beyond that and they both knew it.

"Terms?" Niou asked.

"Destruction of the data in our possession; and of the data Hyoutei should still have. I think they will negotiate reasonably. And..." Yagyuu sighed slightly, "alteration of the data already gathered. I have information on the responsible parties, but it will still be a huge amount of work."

Niou closed his eyes, thought.

Yagyuu had done the right thing; played for time, possibly got them off the hook. At least somewhat.

"How many of the people we've encountered have been working for it?" he asked. That was the key.

"Not many," Yagyuu said flatly, and Niou cursed to himself. "And it has no knowledge of what has become of Yanagi. It has largely been moving against Hyoutei. I understand that a message of warning was ignored at some stage. It hired agents to destroy the data, which was the attempt at the warehouse, but it seems it didn't choose very well..." which was a polite way of saying that the people who'd tried to kill them had sucked. And Niou had figured it was just an attempt at a scare, which would've made more sense. But apparently the inept were still hard at work. Thank fuck. He really should take the possibility of outright incompetence more thoroughly into account at times.

"So we know it won't make more attempts on our life so long as we keep up our end of the deal," he said, working his way through things - out loud, for Yagyuu's benefit. "But we've got at least one other group to deal with. They sent St Rudolph's lot after us, which was to try and distract us from coming back here. Do you know who's behind... no, of course you don't. They might not even have anything to do with this whole mess, you know? It's possible." It was. Borderline, but you had to account for the possibility that not everything was a giant conspiracy. There were so many forces at work in their world at any one time, and Yanagi especially must have made enemies.

"I'm inclined to believe it's the corporation we failed to complete the deal with," Yagyuu suggested. Niou nodded.

"Yeah, that's an attractive idea - well, not really, but it is an explanation that fits. But..." Niou shifted a bit, feeling a touch uncertain, "it's still an assumption. We've got nothing to prove it one way ot the other." It was definitely the first thing to investigate though.

There was a nagging feeling in his mind that he was forgetting something. The apartment was too quiet, wasn't it, and... oh. Kirihara.

"Hang on a minute," he said, pulling free from Yagyuu, "gotta check on..."

Kirihara wasn't there.

Predictably enough.

He must've gone while Yagyuu was searching and Niou was hooked up as a passenger, though he could also have gone while Yagyuu was out. Niou... probably wouldn't have noticed, right then. He'd had other things on his mind.

"Shit," he muttered. That seemed to sum things up.

"Should we try to find him?" Yagyuu asked. "He may have been gone for some time. And we..."

"...have a lot to do. I _know._ Damn, why couldn't he just stay put?"

"Kirihara can make his own decisions."

That was open to debate, as far as Niou was concerned, but he'd have to trust that Yagyuu was right for now. If they discovered anything concrete they could probably try to communicate it to the younger agent, though he wasn't going to throw hints to Kirihara without anything solid behind them. He'd be liable to do something stupid without planning it out properly.

"We're really alone, aren't we," Yagyuu observed, later, watching Niou working through plans of security systems to figure out how to get inside corporate facilities.

Niou looked up at him, tired and strained. "No. Kirihara will be fine when he calms down, and we'll get Yanagi back."

It didn't sound convincing; Niou didn't even look as though he was convinced himself.

"We are alone in this, though," Yagyuu said. He didn't quite have the heart to fully contradict Niou.

Their circle of support had been steadily shrinking for the last year and it felt as though they'd finally reached the logical end-point, where they had noone to rely on but one another. But there were worse people to be left with.

His uncertainty was fading regarding Niou, at least. Perhaps he was thinking more clearly now that they had a definite course of action to solve the problems they were having regarding the AI; perhaps he'd been clued in by how lost Niou had seemed, when he'd thought Yagyuu was dead. But there was something there. Niou cared enough.

"We'll get by," Niou said, and Yagyuu didn't know, but felt - hoped - that it was true. "Come and take a look at this for me, and I'll go and contact Atobe."

It was impressive how much things could fall apart in just a few days, Niou decided, looking around the flat for one last time. Yagyuu had done his best, picking out as much as was salvageable and locking it away in the most secure-looking cupboards he could find, and Niou had done a rushed repair job on the door so that it at least closed and, hopefully, wouldn't look unusual from the outside. They were acting on the assumption that they had to keep the place as secure as possible. Yanagi would be wanting it back, after all.

Niou had been carefully refraining from calculating the odds of getting their data-master back intact. Some things he would simply rather not think about.

"Alright?" he asked Yagyuu, placing a hand on his partner's shoulder. "We need to leave."

The slight softness in Yagyuu's expression when he turned to face Niou was... was something pretty damn special, anyway. "Yes," he said, almost-smiled. Niou started slightly as Yagyuu's hand closed over his, fought down a ridiculous rush of happiness. There wasn't much to be happy about, but somehow - for just that instant - there was enough.

"Let's go, then," Niou murmured, keeping his voice steady because he was a professional, not a kid with a crush. By this stage Yagyuu must have a pretty clear idea of how much of his indifference was a front, but he could still keep up some pretence of dignity.

It helped somewhat to think of this as simply another job, putting aside the sheer improbability of the events which had pushed them to this point. But if it had been another job, just like any other one, they'd have had backup; Yanagi taking out security systems for them, or other agents hired by their employer working to cover such weaknesses as the pair of them had - which were remarkably few compared to most teams', Yagyuu believed, but did still exist. One of them was currently making itself apparent.

He was having to do his own hacking, and between his arm and the slight lingering disorientation from his earlier experiences, it wasn't going as well as could be hoped. Not that he'd slipped so far, but he could feel his own hesitation - and if it was noticeable to him, then it must be glaringly obvious to others.

_Don't tense up so much, _Niou told him. _It won't help._

He knew. But he couldn't help it.

A vague awareness of reality told him that Niou's hands were on his shoulders again, trying to rub the tension out of them. Strangely enough, that was helpful; at least it calmed him. Thank you, he sent, and imagined Niou smirking in response.

He was still slow, but he wasn't damaging his own performance further by thinking too hard about the problems.

They had a physical location to aim for, but the level of security was a problem. The storage unit they'd lifted before had been in what seemed likely to have been temporary storage, not its intended final location, and Yagyuu rather thought that the people in that facility had not been informed of what exactly they were looking after. The security had been... well, the matrix security had been respectable, but the physical security had been honestly terrible.

He was not accustomed to giving up; he and Niou did not fail. They could succeed here. They had as much of a plan as they could hope to put together without Yanagi's help, and they were well-equipped.

_They will be aware that something is wrong_, he warned Niou a few minutes later, satisfied that he had done as much as he could on the first stage, _but I hope it will take them some time to decide what it is. I have tried to make it look like a technical failure._

He tuned out of virtual space and blinked, adjusting. Niou was already moving, working on the solid lock which had accompanied the electronic protection on the side entrance they had selected. _I think the bastards have actually thought to bolt it,_ he commented. He was facing away from Yagyuu, but his expression would be something between annoyance and amusement.

_Well, hurry up and do something about it, _Yagyuu suggested. _Even if they take it to be a technical fault, extra security will be sent to the area as a precaution. All the deception changes is how quickly they arrive._

_Happy now?_ Niou asked, and the door swung open. Yagyuu looked at it as they went in and noted that there was in fact a bolt, which had been shorn neatly through. Niou's toolkit had vanished into a pocket.

When the door was pushed closed again the damage was barely even visible, although it would become obvious fairly quickly if anyone was actually paying attention.

_Yes,_ he sent, though most of his attention was already diverted to the security systems again. A map of the facility partially obscuring his vision; a constantly-updating map of the security measures overlying that, pulled directly from the central database which had had managed to remain mercifully unnoticed in his use of. _We need to move out of this area, though. Third door on the right. The security passes we have don't cover us to be in this area._ He was working on the understand that the checks were most thorough for actually entering the building; once in the area they were supposedly cleared for they should pass relatively unhindered. It was a shame they had been unable to obtain passes convincing enough to get them through the first automated scanning procedure but it also wasn't that much of a problem. It was amazing, the gaps apparently sensible people would leave in their security. To be fair, they would probably never have discovered its existence without a few tricks of Yanagi's, and would certainly never have been able to exploit it without more of the same. Even absent, the hacker was helping them considerably. Maybe they weren't quite alone. Yet.

There was a slightly unreal quality to this job now, Niou decided. Perhaps they'd just been through so much that his mind had just decided it had to distance itself from the whole thing, or perhaps he really hadn't slept enough. What they were doing wasn't easy, but it didn't feel as though it was him putting in the effort. He was drifting through, reading the game, and things were falling into place.

He and Yagyuu hadn't spoken once since they got inside, communicating silently over the carefully encrypted link between them; and when they reached the first security check, speaking out loud felt wrong, almost jarring.

"Yeah, that's right," he answered the guard who'd stopped them to ask for ID. "We're just working here this week, on transfer from the centre in twelfth." It felt shaky to him, unconvincing; but the guards were, as they'd counted on, working on the basis that anyone who'd got this far must have already been checked at least once, probably twice.

They'd made it most of the way in by the time Yagyuu let him know that the damage to the door they'd entered through had been noticed. Not quite far enough.

_Couldn't they have held off on being observant for five more fucking minutes?_ he sent.

At least the onset of problems had removed the feeling of disconnection, throwing him back into reality headlong, forcing him into rapid observation and analysis.

_They're locking the facility down. Presumed intruders. No reported irregularities amongst staff yet but if they don't find anyone sneaking around then the staff who people are not familiar with will be the most obvious suspects, _Yagyuu sent.

_Thank you. I know._ If he'd been speaking he might've snapped. Yagyuu frowned, obviously recognising his irritation. Unsurprising.

_Apologies._ Slightly cold, but not, because they weren't real words.

_Let's just keep going as before. Hurry it up a bit, but not more than if we were late for a meeting or whatever the fuck these people get up to._

Yagyuu didn't bother answering, just kept walking as though he owned the place, which was always a good skill to have. Confidence made a surprising difference - at least against the human parts of the security network.

"We're on alert. Noone has clear--" the man had begun, but that was as far as he got before Yagyuu decided that, gentleman or not, he only had so much patience to spare for the world in general.

_I hope you didn't let that get caught on camera,_ Niou told him. Yagyuu shrugged.

_I'm afraid I didn't have time to prevent it, but I have attempted to isolate the cameras in this area from the network. I am not certain it worked. We shall see._ People would still know something was wrong, but it would give them a little extra time before they were positively identified as the intruders.

They were almost there, anyway.

_Passkey? _Yagyuu suggested, when they were facing the door. Niou shook his head.

_Noone is cleared for this area right now, so they've probably closed off the locks as well,_ he pointed out,_ but fortunately, electronic locks are a fucking stupid idea anyway._

_Well, _Yagyuu told him, tracking the movements of security teams, _time is short._

In an ideal situation, one could complete a job and leave without anyone being aware of one's presence. This was not an ideal situation.

_No problem,_ Niou told him moments later, grinning up at him and indicating the largely dismantled control box for the lock. _We're in._

_Ah, yes,_ Yagyuu observed, _And they'll certainly never know which way we went now._

_You're too picky. You wanted speed, you got it._

Yagyuu gave up on arguing. It only wasted more time. The pressing concern was to finish the job and get out. Mostly, getting out. At least as far as Yagyuu could see.

Finishing it was easy. Destruction of information was somewhat counterintuitive for anyone who'd been trained by Yanagi, but simple to accomplish. If there were further copies beyond those they were aware of, it frankly wasn't their problem.

He was about to tell Niou to try opening the door on the other side of the room, but his partner was ahead of him, fiddling with the mechanism for a surprisingly short period of time.

_Easier to open from the inside than the outside,_ Niou informed him, expression smug. _Let's get the hell out._

Leaving was an adrenaline-fuelled rush, the reverse of the weird detachment he'd felt on the way in. Leaving the way they'd come in wasn't an option, but he'd never expected it to be. And noone was being let out through the main doors until the intruders had been found or the hunt had been called off.

_Fight our way out?_ he asked Yagyuu when they'd tried every exit they could think of. He hoped the answer would be no - something with a lower risk of death would be preferable. _Or you got something else?_ He paused, thinking for a moment. _Send in a false report of intruders captured. It'll distract them for a moment._

Yagyuu nodded, to his relief. _I will need to obtain the appropriate codes. I am not certain my hacking skills are sufficient, but it's certainly worth trying._

_Can I help?_

_Just keep watch._

He hated having nothing much to do. Even keeping watch was pretty much a token job. But while neither of them were truly expert at this, Yagyuu was a lot better, injured or otherwise.

_Or you could put together the transmission,_ Yagyuu suggested, apparently relenting. _I'll encrypt it when I have the codes._

Niou got to work, grateful for having slightly more immediate purpose. He looked over the plans Yagyuu had just sent to him, and tried to figure out a suitable location - perhaps back towards the place they'd broken in, to give the impression that they had been trying to escape via the most obvious route. It wouldn't do to have the report come from a security team; they'd all be in good communication with one another. General staff taking matters into their own hands, then.

_Fill in the blanks,_ he told Yagyuu, sending the message over. _Isn't this a fun game?_

_If you say so,_ Yagyuu replied, belatedly. His expression was still distant; presumably he was having to work hard to get the codes and make the thing look convincing.

And...

_There,_ Yagyuu told him. _Got it. Now we have to see how they react._

They waited, tense; Niou watching Yagyuu's face, Yagyuu watching whatever was projected onto his datascreen. Yagyuu was the one to relax first, but Niou took that as his hint that they weren't about to get a horde of armed guards descending on their location.

_Which way now?_ he asked.

_There's an exit that has been left relatively light on security,_ Yagyuu sent back. _They sent the main team nearby to confirm the reports of capture. We may have to fight our way past the men who remain, but there are not many of them._

_Nothing we can't handle,_ Niou said, with a cocky grin. _I'm not going to be beaten now. _We're_ not going to be beaten now._

They fought to get out, but it was... brief. Niou was beautifully skilled, if brutal; Yagyuu sometimes suspected he took entirely too much pleasure in getting to fight and hurt people - if not when anticipating it then at least in the actual moment - but... he was somewhat the same. They had no space to criticise one another.

"Is that it?" Niou asked. It wasn't really a question, but he could feel his partner's disbelief; could feel echoes of it in himself. Well, perhaps disbelief wasn't the word. But it was something of the sort. "Is it over?"

Yagyuu looked up at the glowing network of lights, strung on wires across the sky. "I suppose that depends on how you define over."

"Mm. Guess so."

"There's still Yanagi."

"Yeah." Niou threw an arm across his shoulders, leaned against him, a line of warmth against his side in the cool afternoon air. The contact meant something different now, and that was alright. "But... shit. We're alive, Hiroshi."

Yagyuu actually laughed. It wasn't funny, it was just... amazing. "Yes," he agreed. "We're alive. And it's the end of something, anyway."

They weren't exactly out of trouble, but when were they _ever_ out of trouble?

"Home?" Niou asked, muttering the word against his shoulder, and Yagyuu realised that really they'd been running on empty for hours now, maybe for days.

"Home," he agreed.

Tomorrow they could start to worry about the rest of the world again. For today, it really was over.


End file.
